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)F   METHOD]     VI 


Philip  Embury  Preaching  His  First  Sermon  in  the  X>: 


V 


vs 


FEB  16  1932 


s 


&t 


A 


TH  E 

HISTORY 

OF 

METHODISM 

JOHN   FLETCHER   HURST,   D.D.,    LL.D. 

A  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
Chancellor  of  the  American  University 
Sometime  President  of  the  American  Church  History  Society 
Author  of  "A  History  of  The  Christian  Church,"  Etc.,  Etc. 


AMERICAN 
METHODISM 


VOLUME 
THE  FIRST 


New    York 
EATON      &      MAINS 

MDCCCC1I  I 


Copyright  by 

EATON  &  MAINS 

1902 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME   I 


i  II  U'll'K  PAGE 

I.  A  Woman,  A  Carpenter,  and  a  Redcoat i 

II.  "  Let  Us  Arise  and  Build!" 13 

III.  Strawbridge,  the  Maryland  Farmer-Preacher 26 

IV.  Helpers  from  Abroad 37 

V.  Earliest    Missionary  Labors 46 

VI.  Pioneering 59 

VII.  "I  Seek,  a  Circulation  of  the  Preachers." 70 

VIII.  Rapid  Organization 80 

IX.  The  First  Conference  in  America 90 

X.  The  Partino  of  the  Ways 101 

XL  American  Volunteers 106 

XII.  An  American  Philip 113 

XIII.  Under  Gathering  War  Clouds 1 19 

XIV.  Asbury  Coming  to  the  Front 127 

XV.  "  Tory  !  Tory  ! " 135 

XVI.  The  Great  Virginia  Revival 146 

XVII.  A  Son  of  Thunder 154 

XVIII.  The  Return  of  the  Missionaries 167 

XIX.  In  the  Midst  of  Alarms 179 

XX.  The  Gospel  of  Peace  in  Time  of  War 187 

XXI.  Preachers— or  Ministers? 199 

XXII.  The  Man  at  the  Helm 209 

XXIII.  Freeborn  Garrettson 216 

XXIV.  The  Sisters 227 

XXV.  The  Brethren 238 

XXVI.  A  Handful  of  Corn 247 

XXVII.  Religion  in  the  Young  Republic 259 


Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXVIII.  "A  Bishop  as  Much  as  Any  Man" 267 

XXIX.  Off  Like  an  Arrow 281 

XXX.  The  Christmas  Conference  a  Meeting  of  Destiny...  294 
XXXI.  Great  Scenes  in  Lovely  Lane 303 

XXXII.  The  First  American  Episcopal   Church 314 

XXXIII.  The  Regimen  of  the  Preachers 326 

XXXIV.  A  Continental  Diocese 333 

XXXV.  Want  and  Labors  of  Asbury 344 

XXXVI.  Asbury  and  His  Companion,  Whatcoat 354 

XXXVII.  The  British-American   Bishop.  363 

XXXVIII.  A  Declaration  of  Independence 376 

XXXIX.  The  First  Methodist  College 383 

XL.  Cheap  Books  for  the  People 395 

XLI.  The  Apostle  of  New  England 412 

XLII.  Free  Grace  among  the  Elect 420 

XLIII.  Attacking  the  Puritan  Citadel  435 

XLIV.  Progress  Southward 448 

XLV.  Still  Facing  the  South  . .  454 

XL VI.  On  the  Western  Waters  463 

XLVII.  The  Entrance  into  Kentucky 470 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


I'HOTCH.R  \\  ORES 

The  First  Methodist  Meeting  in  New  York '.  Frontispiece 

Philip  Embury's  Call  to  Preach    Facing  7 

Captain  Webb  in  the  Rigging  Loft Facing  53 

Captain  Webb  on  a  Missionary  Excursion Facing-  85 

Barbara  Heck,  and  the  Card  Players Facing-  230 

PAGE 

Ballingran  Chapei 3 

Embury's  Note  on   His  Conversion  4 

Facsimile  of  the  Advertisement  of  Philip  Embury 6 

Embury's  Call  to  Preach 7 

Barbara  Heck's  Bible 11 

The  Old  Rigging  Loft 14 

Subscribers  to  the  Building    Fund  of  John   Street  Chapel..  15 

■\Vesl*ey  Chapel,"  the  First  "John  Street  Church." 19 

Philip  Embury's  Concordance 21 

Paul  Heck's  German  Bible 22 

The  Burial  Place  of  the  Hecks 24 

Facsimile  of  the  Signature  in  Embury's  Concordance 25 

The  Village  Street  of  Drumsna 27 

Reputed  Birthplace  of  Robert  Strawbridge,  Drumsna 28 

Methodist  Maryland 29 

The  Old  John  Evans  House 30 

Strawbridge  Memorial  Church,  Baltimore 32 

Inventory  of  Robert  Strawbridge's  Estate 33 

House  Where  Strawbridge  Died,  and  His  Funeral 35 

Strawbridge's  Monument 36 

Rev.  Richard  Boardman 40 

Rev.  Joseph  Pilmoor 42 

Old  Wesleyan  Chapel,  Peaseholm  Green,  England 44 

American  Quarterly  Tickets 45 

The  First  Regulations  for  the  Preachers  in  New  York 47 

Peter  Williams 48 

The  Preachers'  House  in  John  Street,  New  York  50 

The  Old  State  House,  Philadelphia 55 

St.  George's  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Philadelphia 57 

Brooklyn  Ferry  House  and  Boats,  1746 60 

A  Page  from  Joseph  Pilmoor's  Journal 61-62 

The  German  Church,  Baltimore 63 

The  Old  Capitol,  Williamsburg,  Va 65 

Christ  Church,  Philadelphia  68 

The  Reputed  Birthplace  of  Francis  Asbury 71 

V 


Illustrations 

PAG] 

Manwood  Cottage,  Handsworth 73 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Asbury 75 

Mrs.  Ann  Doty  Disosway 77 

Lovely  Lane  Preachinghouse,  Baltimore 83 

Rev.  Thomas  Rankin 87 

Rev.  George  Shadford 89 

The  First  Conference  in  America,  1773 92 

Facsimile  of  the  First  Printed  Minutes,  1773.. 96 

The  Tomb  of  Rev.  Richard  Boardman,  at  Cork 103 

Portion  of  an  Early  Maryland  Chapel  Deed,  1773 104 

The  Dallam  Homestead,  Harford  County,  Md 108 

Bush  Forest  Chapel,  Maryland il1 

Gatch's  Church,  Baltimore,  Built  1814 — ' 115 

The  Attack  on  Bunker  Hill I22 

Perry  Hall  in  1900 I28 

The  Slave  Jail,  Perry  Hall  x3° 

Receipts  of  Embury,  Heck,  and  Jarvis J32 

Philip  Embury's  Three  Burial  Places J33 

An  American  Rifleman "37 

Reading  the  Declaration  of  Independence 138 

Dr.  Samuel  Johnson x4° 

Title-page  of  Wesley's  " Calm  Address." 142 

The  Earl  of  Dartmouth J43 

Old  South  Street  Chapel,  Salem,  N.  J '55 

The  Old  Courthouse,  Salem,  N.  J *57 

Gravestone  of  Rev.  Benjamin  Abbott,  Salem,  N.  J 165 

Interior  of  Portland  Chapel,  Bristol,  England 168 

The  Webb  Memorial  Window    in    Portland  Chapel 170 

Lord  North I73 

Portrait  of  Captain  Webb !75 

King  George  the  Third 17J 

Holden's  Meetinghouse,  Queen  Anne  County,  Md 181 

Dorchester  County  Jail,  Cambridge,  Md l86 

The  Surrender  of  Cornwallis ' 19l 

Hon.  Richard  Bassett,  of  Delaware '93 

Barratt's  Chapel,  Side  View '95 

Barratt's  Chapel  in  1900,  Front  View *97 

Strawbridge's  Log  Chapel,  Sam's  Creek 20° 

Stone  Chapel,  Built  1783,  Rebuilt  1800 2°° 

The  House   in   Petersburg  in  which  Asbury   Held   His  First 

Conference  in  Virginia 2I 

Francis  Asbury's  Southern  Circuit,  April-November,   1780...  213 

Rev.  Francis  Asbury  in  His  Forty-ninth  Year 2H 

Freeborn  Garrettson 2I? 

vi 


Illustrations 

p  M.i 

The  Saddlebags  of  the  Rev.  Freeborn  Garrettson 220 

Rev.  Woolman  Hickson's  First  Sermon  in  Brooklyn 242 

William  Phoebus  245 

Barratt's  Chatei 248 

Mat  of  United  States,  Published  in  17S5 250 

Rev.  Samuel  Provoost,  D.D 260 

Samuel  Seabury 262 

Rev.  John  Carroll 264 

Wm.  White,  D.D 265 

Rev.  Thomas  Cork,  LL.D 270 

Priory* Church,  Brecon,  Wales  272 

The  Parish  Church,  South  Petherton,  England 274 

Nave  of  Brecon  Church  276 

Title  of  Kino's  Primi  ltve  Church 278 

Rev.  Thomas  Vasey 284 

Barratt's  Chapel,  Interior 288 

Mr.  F.  Asbury 295 

Memorial    Tablet,  Marking  the    Site    of   the    Lovely   Lane 

Meetinghouse,  Baltimore,  Md 297 

Asburv's  Consecration  as  Bishop 304 

Rev.  Philip  Otterbein 307 

The   Consecration   of    Francis   Asbury   as    a   Bishop   of  the 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church 309 

Corporate  Seal  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  New 

York  City 312 

Title-page  of  the  First  Edition  of  the  Discipline 315 

Wesley's  Hymn  Book  for  America 317 

The  Methodist  Prayer  Book 319 

Title-page  of  the  First  Collected   Edition  of  the  General 

Minutes 322 

Bishop  Asbury's  First  Episcopal  Tour,  1785 335 

Communion  Table  from  Old  Rehoboth  Church,  Union,  Va...  336 

Rev.  Henry  Willis 337 

Dwelling  and  Tomb  of  Henry  Willis , 338 

Mrs.  Ann  Hollingsworth  Willis 339 

The  House  of  the  Rev.  Green  Hill 340 

Old  Rehoboth  Church,  near  Union,  Monroe  County,  Va 342 

The  Home  of  General  William  Russell,  Saltville,  Va 343 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Russell 345 

First  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Uniontown,  Pa 347 

Bishop  Asbury's  Episcopal  Round,  1788 348 

Federal  Hall,  New  York,  1789 349 

Major  and  Rev.  Thomas  MORRELL   350 

George  Washington 351 


Illustrations 

PAGE 

The  Franklin  House,  Franklin  Square,  New  York 352 

The  Fruits  of  Fifteen  Months,  1789,  1790 355 

House    Near    Masterson's    Station,    Ky.,    Where    the    First 

Western  Conference  was  Held   357 

Bryant  Station 359 

Death  Mask  of  John  Wesley 360 

Old  Light  Street  Church,  Baltimore    365 

Mrs.  Martha  Washington 367 

An  Early  Conference  in  Baltimore 369 

Rev.  Nelson  Reed  at  the  Age  of  82 379 

Cokesbury  Chapel  and  Site  of  Cokesbury  College 387 

Cokesbury  College  Bell,  1900 389 

Ebenezer  Academy,  Brunswick  County,  Va 392 

The  Cokesbury  Bell 393 

The  Cokesbury  Stone 394 

Title-page  of  the  First  Book  of  the  Methodist  Book  Concern.  399 

Title-page  of  the  Arminian  Magazine 401 

First    Paragraph    of   the   Preface   to   the   Arminian    Maga- 
zine, 1789        402 

An  Early  Book  Concern  Imprint 403 

One  of  Dickins's  Works 4°5 

Rev.  Ezekiel  Cooper 4°7 

Old  St.  David's  Episcopal  Church,  Cheraw,  S.  C> 416 

The  Old  Capitol,  Washington 417 

Monument  to  Jesse  Lee 4:8 

Jesse  Lee's  First  Preaching  Place,  Norwalk,  Conn 424 

Corner  Stone   of   Jesse   Lee   Memorial  Church,    Ridgefield, 

Conn 427 

Jesse  Lee  Memorial  Church,  Ridgefield,  Conn 429 

First  Town  Hall,  Ridgefield,  Conn 431 

Table  Used  by  Jesse  Lee 433 

Old  Statehouse,  Hartford,  Conn 436 

Boston  Common  and  the  Old  Elm,  1790 439 

Rev.  Enoch  Mudge 441 

Yale  College,  The  Chapel  and  Connecticut  Hall 443 

The  New  England  Methodist  Centenary  Gathering,   1886....  444 

First  Methodist  Preaching  House  in  Boston.. 446 

The  Rapids  of  the  French  Broad —  451 

In  the  "  Land  of  the  Sky  " 464 

A  Farmhouse  in  the  "  Land  of  the  Sky  " 466 

Killian's  House,  Beaver  Dam  Valley,  Near  Asheville,  N.  C.  468 

Old  Statehouse,  Frankfort,  Ky — 473 

Slick  Ford,  Ky.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 475 

The  Old  Macdonald  House,  Near  Blacksburg,  Va 477 


AMERICAN    METHODISM 


CHAPTER   I 

A  Woman,  a  Carpenter,  and  a  Redcoat 

Cosmopolitan  New  York. — The  Preacher  of  the  First  Sermon. — 
The  Irish  Palatines  in  New  York. — Cards  in  Mrs.  Heck's  Fire- 
place.— The  First  Sermon. — The  Redcoat  Evangelist. 


M*frK*frS^S 


lkvss.»aM!li 


HE  beginnings  of  Methodism  in  America 
belong  to  the  high  realms  of  religious 
romance.  New  York  was  the  first  con- 
spicuous scene.  While  the  Dutch  colonists 
were  the  first  Europeans  to  possess  and 
occupy  Manhattan  Island,  other  currents  of 
immigrants  from  the  Old  World  came  and  found  a  home 
in  the  enterprising  and  struggling  village.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  there  was 
no  important  body  of  European  Protestants  which  was  not 
represented  on  that  -little  island  which  is  now  the  metropolis 
of  the  western  hemisphere.  The  few  Methodists  there, 
however,  were  probably  the  most  obscure.  That  any  existed 
there  at  all  was  not  suspected  by  the  people  in  general. 
Churches  there  were,  but  they  represented  the  more  notable 


2  American  Methodism 

confessions  of  the  Old  World,  which  were  now  taking  firm 
root  in  the  new.  There  were  already  two  Reformed  churches, 
which  sustained  the  prestige  of  the  earlier  rule  of  the  Dutch 
burghers.  Then  there  were  two  edifices  belonging  to  the 
Church  of  England — St.  George's,  at  the  corner  of  Cliff  and 
Beekman  Streets,  and  old  Trinity,  at  the  head  of  Wall  Street, 
the  predecessor  of  the  stately  church  of  to-day.  The  obscurer 
places  of  worship  were  the  English  and  Scotch  Presbyterian 
congregations,  the  little  French  Huguenot  assembly,  the 
Lutheran  church,  founded  bv  the  refugees  from  the  Pala- 
tinate;  the  little  knot  of  Moravians,  the  Baptist  group,  just 
getting  into  their  first  church ;  the  Friends'  meeting,  and 
a  synagogue  of  Spanish  and  Portuguese  Jews.  But  where 
were  the  Methodists  ? 

The  first  Methodist  sermon  in  America  of  which  we  have 
anything  like  a  definite  account  was  preached  in  a  private 
dwelling  in  the  colonial  city  of  New  York,  early  in  1766, 
by  Philip  Embury,  an  emigrant  carpenter,  who  had  been 
stirred  to  do  his  duty  by  a  zealous  Palatine  woman  named 
Barbara  Heck.  The  credit  of  protecting  and  promoting  the 
success  of  this  infant  society  belongs  to  an  Englishman, 
Captain  Thomas  Webb,  a  warm-hearted  Methodist  soldier  in 
the  forces  of  His  Britannic  Majesty  King  George  III. 

Embury,  the  preacher,  and  a  majority  of  his  hearers 
were  of  German  blood  and  Irish  birth.  Their  fathers  had 
been  driven  from  the  valley  of  the  Rhine  fifty  years  before, 
when  the  armies  of  France  laid  waste  the  Palatinate.  Many 
of  these  German  Lutherans  had  crossed  the  ocean  and  found 
homes  in  the  British  provinces  of  New  York,  the  Jerseys, 
and  Penn's  Woods,  but  some  families  under  the  protection 
of  the  crown  had  turned  aside  to  Ireland  and  settled  in  a 
cluster  of  villages  not  far  from  Limerick,  where  they  kept 


The   Palatine   Car.xnter 


alive  the  language  and  customs  of  the  Fatherland,  but  neg- 
lected their  religion.  Wesley  and  his  helpers  visited  these 
msavory    communities,    and    their    preaching    was    richly 


DRAWN   BY  G     WILLARD  BONTE, 


FROM  A   PHOTOGRAPH. 


BALUNGRAN    CHAPKL. 

rewarded.      Many  Palatines  were  reclaimed,   and  whole   vil- 
lages became  sober  and  godly  Methodists. 

Philip  Embury  was  an  inhabitant,  probably  a  native,  of 
Balligarrane,  now  Ballingran,  one  of  these  German  vil- 
lages in  Ireland.  He  learned  the  carpenter's  trade,  and 
must  have  had  a  good  bit  of  schooling  from  the  old  German 
village  pedagogue,  Guier,  for,  besides  other  convincing  evi- 
dence of  his  intelligence  and  education,  we  have  the  precious 
writing,  done  bv  his  own  hand  in  his  twentv-fifth  vear.      It 


American  Methodism 


was  a  Methodist  itinerant  that  brought  the  light  to  Embury's 
soul,  and  as  a  class  leader  and  local  preacher  the  carpenter 
was  soon  diffusing  the  radiance  among  his  neighbors. 

The    "rents"   have    been    the  bane   of    Ireland  for   more 

than    one    cen- 


G^i~  (]&eJ$rt^&J*-</i tur^    and    s 

Z7     '  ^  /:  "^  ^-^  ~&f~     tightening  oi 

erf  g^^c^m£>^?//,  (fhu  7^aT — ^ 


the  collector's 
thumbscrews  at 
Balligarrane 
was  always 
likely  to  send 
some  young 
couples  over 
seas  to  the  New 
World,  where 
many  a  thrifty 
family  of  Pala- 
tines of  earlier 
emigrations 
was  already  on 
the  road  to 
wealth.  It  was 
probably  this 
cause  that 
brought  Philip 
Embury     and 

his  fresh  young  bride,  Margaret  (Switzer),  with  several 
families  of  their  kinsfolk  and  acquaintance  on  board  a 
ship  in  the  Shannon  bound  for  America,  where  the  party 
intended  to  devote  themselves  to  the  cultivation  of  flax  and 
the  manufacture  of  linen  and  hemp.      Besides  the  Emburys, 


EMBURY'S  NOTE  ON  HIS  CONVERSION. 


Emigrants  from  County  Limerick  5 

the  names  of  their  shipmates,  Paul  Heck  of  Balligarrane,  and 
his  wife  Barbara  Ruckle,  will  always  have  an  interest  in 
Methodist  eyes.  Two  months  later  the  ship  Perry,  Captain 
Hogan,  from  Limerick,  entered  the  Narrows,  passed  up  the 
beautiful  bay,  and  on  August  n,  1760,  landed  its  passengers 
on  Manhattan  Island,  in  the  British  province  of  New  York. 

The  city,  which  doubtless  impressed  the  villagers  from 
County  Limerick  with  its  size  and  splendor,  was  but  a  hamlet 
in  comparison  with  the  Greater  New  York  which  now  makes 
populous  the  shores  of  bay  and  rivers.  Manhattan  Island 
had,  perhaps,  fourteen  thousand  inhabitants,  at  least  one  half 
of  them  of  Dutch  descent.  Many  shops  still  displayed  Dutch 
signs,  and  the  older-fashioned  burghers  cherished  the  old 
language.  The  city  was  mainly  built  on  the  lower  end  of  the 
island,  for  the  most  part  south  of  the  Commons  (now  City 
Hall  Park),  though  tending  to  spread  out  northward  along 
the  Bowerv,  which  was  the  hisjh  road  to  Boston. 

It  was  fashionable  to  attend  worship  on  Sunday  either  at 
one  of  the  English  churches  with  the  governor  and  military, 
or  at  the  Dutch  churches,  where  the  Knickerbocker  aris- 
tocracy outslept  the  tedious  sermon.  But  the  struggling 
band  of  Baptists  and  the  devoted  Moravians  could  testify 
to  the  poverty  of  spiritual  religion  in  this  gay  commercial 
capital. 

For  a  few  years  after  the  arrival  of  the  Irish  Palatines  we 
hear  little  of  them  beyond  their  unsuccessful  attempts  to 
obtain  a  tract  of  land  on  which  to  establish  their  industrial 
colony.  Philip  Embury,  who  had  labored  successfully  as 
a  local  preacher  in  his  own  country,  and  had  even  been  a 
candidate  for  the  itinerancy  in  1758,  remained  silent  for 
some  years  after  his  arrival  in  New  York.  He  worked 
faithfully  at  his  trade,    living    in    a    small    house   then   far 


6  American   Methodism 

uptown  (near  the  present  entrance  to  the  Brooklyn  Bridge), 
and  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  Lutherans,  among  whom  were 
doubtless  old  friends  and  kindred  from  the  Rhine  lands. 
The  advertisement  of  "Philip  Embury,  Schoolmaster,"  in 
Weyman's  New  York  Gazette  in  March  and  April,  1761, 
would  indicate  that  the  carpenter  was  not  entirely  dependent 
upon  the  work  of  his  hands  for  support. 

Successive  immigrations  brought  more  Methodist  men 
and  women  from  the  old  Limerick  villages,  who  backslid 
among  the  temptations  of  the  city  and  indulged  in  open  sin. 

The  retiring 


German   c  a  r- 


PhiL  Embury^  School-Mailer, 

GIVES  Notice,  that  on  the  fir  ft  Day  of  May  rre:.V,  he  intends 
to  teach  Reading,  Writing,  and  Arithrmeticl:,  in  Engliih,        pentei"      mijjllt 
in  the  New  Scliool-Houfc,  now  building  in  Littie  Qoeen-ftreet,         *- 

next  Door  to   the  Lutheran  Minifters  :    And  as  he  h.is  been  in-        endure     SUch 
form'd,  that  fevcral  Gentlemen  were  willing  to  favour  him  with 

their  Children,  he  gives  farther  Nciice,  that  if  a  fufficient  Number        sights  ;    U  Ot    SO 
of  Scholars  ihould  attend  his  School,  he  would  teach  in  Company 

with  Mr.  John  Embay,  (who  teaches  feveral  Branches  belonging        his       energetic 
to  Trade  and  Bunnefs)  tliat  Children  might  be  carefully  attended, 

as  he  faithfully  delires  the  Good  of  the  Publick.    He  now  teaches        kinswoman, 
at  Mr.  Samuel  f  of! fr's,  in  Carman's-ftrcct.  ,,  -r>       1 

Mrs.     Barbara 

FACSIMILE  OF  THE   ADVERTISEMENT   OF   PHILIP  Heck  One 

EMBURY,    NEW    YORK,    1761. 

evening,  early 
in  the  year  1766,  she  burst  in  upon  a  card-playing  com- 
pany of  her  countrymen  in  her  own  kitchen,  swept  the  pack 
from  the  table  into  her  apron,  whence  she  shook  the  cards 
into  the  open  fire,  rebuking  the  gamesters  in  hot  and  righteous 
wrath..  Thence,  her  mind  made  up,  she  went  straight 
to  the  silent  Embury,  and  told  him  what  she  had  done 
and  what  he  ought  to  do.  "Philip,"  she  pleaded,  "you 
must  preach  to  us,  or  we  shall  all  go  to  hell,  and  God  will  re- 
quire our  blood  at  your  hands."  She  crushed  his  timid  objec- 
tions of  "no  preaching  place  and  no  congregation"  with  a 
woman's  prompt  good  sense:  "Preach  here  in  your  own 
house,  and  to  your  own  company."     She  herself  went  forth 


Barbara  Heck  Exhorting  Philip  Embury  to  Preach  the  Gospel. 

Drawn  by  Dan  Ceartl. 


The  First  Methodist  Meeting 


and  persuaded  her  husband  to  come.  Mrs.  Embury  was 
there,  of  course;  Mr.  John  Lawrence,  a  friend,  and  Betty, 
ail  African  servant,  were  usually  numbered  in  the  congrega- 
tion of  five  who  sat  in  the  carpenter's  living  room  that 
evening  to  hear 
the  Scripture 
and  exhorta- 
tion and  unite 
in  the  earnest 
prayer  and  in 
the  singing  of 
the  sweet  Wes- 
ley hymns. 

There  were 
doubtless 
among  the  -cos- 
mopolitan peo- 
ple of  New 
York  not  a  few 
English  and 
Irish  i  m  m  i- 
grants  who  had 
been  reached 
by  the  W  e  s- 
leyan  evangel- 
ists in  the  old 
country.  There 
were    certainly 

among  the  troops  in  the  British  garrison  men  whom  the 
sound  of  song  or  preaching  drew  into  Embury's  cottage  on 
Barrack  Street.  The  handful  was  soon  more  than  a  house- 
ful,  and   a   room  for  the  preaching  was  hired   in  the  same 


DRAWN   Br   DA'S   BEARD 


EMBURYS    CALL   TO    PREACH. 


8  American  Methodism 

street  a  few  doors  from  the  infantry  barracks.  Here 
three  Methodist  musicians  from  the  military  band  of  the 
Sixteenth  Foot  came  to  the  aid  of  Mr.  Embury  with  their 
exhortations.  A  number  were  converted  and  a  "class"  of 
twelve  members  was  gathered.  Following  the  earliest 
Methodist  examples  of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  poor,  Mr. 
Embury  visited  the  poorhouse,  and  souls  were  awakened  and 
converted  even  in  that  hopeless  place.  The  work  was  still 
very  much  circumscribed,  and  growing  slowly  byconversions 
and  accessions  from  the  mother  country,  when  a  new  figure 
came  upon  the  scene,  bringing  with  him  qualities  which  were 
lacking  in  the  timid  and  unaggressive  carpenter  of  Balli- 
garrane.  The  newcomer  was  Thomas  Webb,  barrack  master 
of  the  king's  troops  at  Albany. 

It  was  at  one  of  its  evening  meetings,  some  months  after 
that  famous  card  party  which  a  woman's  touch  transformed 
into  a  revival,  that  the  Methodist  congregation  was  surprised, 
somewhat  startled,  perhaps,  by  the  entrance  of  a  British 
officer.  It  was  not  too  rare  an  occurrence  in  those  days  for 
persons  of  quality  to  mock  at  the  humble  Methodists,  and  the 
sight  of  a  scarlet  coat  and  gold  lace  was  calculated  to  disturb 
a  worshiping  assemblage.  But  it  soon  became  known  that 
this  man,  though  he  held  the  king's  commission,  was  a  fervent 

Methodist. 

Thomas  Webb,  though  young  in  the  Gospel  service,  was  a 
veteran  of  the  French  and  Indian  wars.  A  green  patch 
concealed  the  loss  of  the  right  eye,  which  had  been  put  out 
by  a  French  ball  at  Louisbourg,  and  scars  in  his  arm  bore 
witness  to  his  heroism  at  Quebec  under  General  Wolfe. 
He  was  a  half -pay  lieutenant  on  the  retired  list,  and  in  his 
forty-first  year  (1764),  when  the  hot  shot  of  John  Wesley's 
preaching  at  Bristol  penetrated  his  heart  and  kindled  a  flame 


WEST  CLiNEOiNST. 

THE    FIRST    METHODIST    MEETING    IN    NEW    YORK. 


A  Preacher  in  Scarlet  11 

of  Christian  devotion  which  was  thenceforward  the  center  of 
all  his  thoughts  and  actions.  From  a  fervent  exhorter  he 
soon  became  an  attractive  and  effective  local  preacher.      His 


BARBARA    HECKS    BIBLE. 

Now  in  the  possession  of  Victoria  University,  Toronto,  Canada. 

return  to  America  did  not  cool  his  zeal,  and  we  may  imagine 
the  delight  with  which  he  received  the  news  at  Albany,  doubt- 
less from  some  news-mongering  quartermaster,  that  a  Metho- 


12  American   Methodism 

dist  society  had  been  formed  on  Manhattan  Island.  He  was 
not  long  in  finding  an  opportunity  to  take  sloop  down  the 
river  to  see  and  hear  and  help,  as  best  he  could,  the  cause 
which  lay  so  near  his  honest  heart. 

Embury  welcomed  the  stranger  and  invited  him  to  preach. 
The  news  that  a  redcoat  captain — for  "Captain  Webb"  he 
will  always  be,  whatever  the  roster  may  rank  him — was 
preaching  to  the  Methodists  was  enough  to  stir  the  sluggish 
curiosity  of  a  Dutchman,  and  the  audience  room  was  taxed 
to  hold  the  throng  who  came.  He  preached  in  full  regi- 
mentals, with  his  sword  on  the  table  beside  him.  We  may 
believe  that  their  curiosity  was  well  repaid,  for  we  know  that 
Wesley  highly  esteemed  Webb's  fiery  eloquence,  while  wit- 
nesses as  diverse  as  John  Adams,  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  Peter  Williams,  the  colored  sexton  of  John  Street 
Church,  were  equally  convinced  of  his  ability  and  power  as 
an  orator. 


CHAPTER  II 


"Let  Us  Arise  and  Build!" 


The  Old  Rigging  Loft.— An  Historic  Subscription  Paper. — Old 
John  Street.— "  Wesley  Chapel." — The  Best  Dedication  of  a 
Pulpit.— The  Carpenter  and  the  Woman. — The  Redcoat  in 
Philadelphia. 

THE  accession  of  numbers  which  followed  upon  Captain 
"Webb's  timely  arrival  among  the  New  York  Metho- 
dists necessitated  a  new  and  larger  preaching  place. 
One  of  those  spacious  rigging  lofts  which,  in  the  scarcity  of 
public  halls  at  that  time,  were  frequently  utilized  for  reli- 
gious, political,  and  social  assemblages  was  rented.  This 
apartment — the  historic  Old  Rigging  Loft — was  in  a  building 
on  Horse  and  Cart  Street  (now  William),  between  John  and 
Fair  (now  Fulton).  The  Baptists  had  already  held  services 
there.  It  afterward  reverted  to  its  original  use  as  a  sail- 
maker's  loft.  The  building,  which  was  latterly  numbered 
1 20  William  Street,  was  standing  until  1854. 

The  two  preachers,  one  in  hodden  the  other  in  the  king's 
scarlet,  labored  earnestly  and  were  encouraged  by  substantial 
results.  Two  sermons  on  the  .Sabbath,  at  daybreak  and  at 
candlelight — for  the  Methodist  society  was  to  supplement,  not 
to  replace,  the  service  of  the  Church  of  England — and  one  on 

Thursday  evening  drew  so  many  hearers  to  the  bare  1 8x6o-foot 

"3 


14 


American  Methodism 


*r 


room  that  again  the  accommodation  proved  insufficient. 
Within  a  year  the  society  began  to  talk  about  building  and 
owning  a  preaching  place.     Some  advised  against  so  ambitious 


THE   OLD    RIGGING    LOFT. 
Where  Captain  Webb  and  Embury  preached. 

an  undertaking,  but  the  same  woman  who  had  recalled  Em- 
bury to  his  duty  was  not  lacking  now.  Barbara  Heck  had 
said  that  it  was  the  Lord's  work,  and  she  brought  the  others  to 
her  way  of  thinking.     It  was  determined  to  arise  and  build. 

A  plot  of  ground  was  secured  in  1768,  by  lease,  and  two 
years  later  by  deed,  in  the  "  North  Ward  "  of  the  city,  on  the 
lower   side  of   John  Street.     The  subscription  paper  to  the 


//fid  PlS/zeTfic^S  ,r/>rr,+  J44J*SI   {?r>tOC.T& -  „ 

< 


v_  */ /b/r>i/r  rf/jr*r.f<77>r*-  //<V/rr?/S  /,.•  A/vy/ft  £r({  #?  ljyfw/-si,,9s»?"</6', 
Cmfifniy   Ctuftf-  M,tf//QtJ6.  f/<r><Jir/(t  -//tree//*?  c^it^^/V^^r^u^,^ 

\  ti?/!<Wl    //    Of    (;'('«?//   6irJyA<l*  tfftf  //fff?// /'**/'  &  &/&£'*) /#Stf 7 /ffS/fys 

'  (fff/iet!  rA&S/t4/£~Arpi£  ///yf,t  &*/rrfa6f?'9  &//#M/^rfs£ricZvh  cr/°c£s/> 
/rr-frarfyif.  /?/?d/  *<?  /&■"$/, '/fy  fr/rr/&ty  s*  #0*w^^*42/6s^^^tf(tA 
tfv/.;/,  /;i<yj?„,„//y  /L  -TfoafattBe,  rfOfe^drtyterSk  '**'  $*&-  ^ 
ft  &.::/&  /£,,„.  to  &*<ff  ajtvo/'  t**^JrJ^^*^*&*&£iaiA 
tint  //u.  ■  tf*9  <tSa/?  C*>'**6>jfcn,  M/£  fifu„Q«„//y  /}/y£  a/?rtifj£^,  \ 
.iff  /'S./t/rr.)  ■  CC    £csi/r.'4a/e.-  /f  /%&-  -Mfrre  .  _  . . ,  ,       .  v  ' 


J/~^,f        ■  f 

f 

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ff/t/a/f  ■.^'/.■///'ss/.    .    ?J? 


Q 


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/4/yrd^  M/u'       . 
/}.y'"J/y.-f     .'.-.. 
f/r/jfr/i/ur  J&> ,  ucZ: 

J   //r^/^A    .... 

UWm     £/"j/.tr     . 

Jhmt>/i&tfo"ty   .  - 
M  M     .    . 


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$  /o 


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t 

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Orzrf-t   /tterrtC -  ■.'•'    •'"  - 

ifA  Crt-t'A 

y/wi  Vfwr//trffd-  •    • 

//>?"  i,r/t/arr> 
k/ji/ti/v  \/at"-'fy 

Jfsrvry  c  fin/for 

/&•/ -  c£"<r   .... 
,/.'  *  . 

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.  ■'"• '  J.u<s/r     .    .    .    -   - 


S. 


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(\i-77ue9/£ra>Ar$-      /^'/'j^ 


URIlilNAL    SUBSCRIBERS   TO   THE    BUILDING    FUND    OF 
JOHN    STREET    CHAPEL. 

The  first  page  ol  the  list.     Reproduced  from  the  copy  in  the  "  Old  Book  "  of  Record  of 
the  John  Street  Sot  iety. 


An  Historic  Subscription  Paper  17 

building  fund  has  been  carefully  preserved.  Two  hundred 
and  fifty-nine  subscriptions  follow  this  excellent  preamble : 
••  A  number  of  persons  desirous  to  worship  God  in  spirit  and 
in  truth,  Commonly  called  Methodists  (Under  the  direction  of 
the  Revd.  Mr.  John  Wesley),  whom  it  is  Evident  God  has 
often  been  pleased  to  Bless  in  their  Meetings  in  New  York, 
Thinking  it  wo'd  be  more  for  the  Glory  of  God  and  the  good 
of  souls,  had  they  a  more  Convenient  place  to  meet  in,  where 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  might  be  preached  without  distinc- 
tion of  Sects  or  partys,  And  as  Mr.  Philip  Embury  is  a  mem- 
ber and  helper  in  the  Gospel,  the)-  Humbly  beg  the  assistance 
of  Christian  friends,  in  Order  to  Enable  them  to  Build  a  Small 
house  for  that  purpose,  Not  doubting  But  the  God  of  all  Con- 
solation will  Abundantly  Bless  all  such  as  are  willing  to  Con- 
tribute to  the  Same." 

"Thomas  Webb,  £30,"  heads  the  paper — and  closes  it, 
too,  for  that  matter,  for  the  last  entry  is,  "  Thomas  Webb, 
.£3  4-r.  Ocf. ,  given  in  interest  upon  his  bond."  William  Lupton, 
sometime  quartermaster  under  Captain  Webb,  and  now  a 
Methodist  and  a  merchant  of  substance,  comes  next  with  £20, 
and  later  with  £10  more.  James  Jarvis,  the  Methodist  hatter, 
put  down  £20  in  two  subscriptions.  There  were  few  of  these 
munificent  givers.  Three  fourths  of  the  subscribers  gave 
£1  or  less.  The  friends  of  the  new  enterprise  did  not 
limit  their  appeal  to  their  own  people.  Dr.  Auchmuty,  the 
rector  of  Trinity,  and  his  assistants,  Mr.  Ogilvie  and  Mr. 
Ingles  (the  loyalist  priest  who  insisted  on  praying  for  George 
III  on  the  occasion  of  General  Washington's  attend- 
ance at  his  church  in  1776),  gave,  as  they  certainly  should, 
for  the  new  building  was  only  a  pi*eaching  place  for  a  religious 
society — not  a  rival  church.  Many  of  the  leading  citizens 
appear  in  this  excellent  company :   John  Cruger,  nine  years 


18  American   Methodism 

mayor;  Philip  Livingston,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  ;  John  Watts,  the  royal  recorder  whose 
statue  is  in  Trinity  Churchyard;  Professor  Middleton,  of 
King's  College;  James  Duane,  eminent  in  law  and  politics; 
and  the  names  of  Beekman,  DePeyster,  Delancy,  Rhinelander, 
Van  Schaick,Lispenard,  Goelet,  Hamersley,  and  Schuyler  are 
mingled  with  those  of  the  plainer  Methodist  folk,  Heck,  Hick, 
Embury,  Satise,  Crook,  Taylor,  Johnston,  Cook,  Newton, 
Chave,  Sands,  and  Staples.  More  than  thirty  of  the  sub- 
scribers are  women.  Mary  Barclay,  the  widow  of  Trinity's 
second  rector,  is  there  with  her  £2,  and  so  on  down  to  the  few 
shillings  of  "  Rachel"  and  "  Margaret,"  who  were  probably 
colored  servants,  giving  from  their  scant  earnings.  The  en- 
tire subscription  yielded  ,£418  3*.  6d.  Wesley  sent  money 
and  books,  and  Webb  collected  £32  in  Philadelphia,  where 
spiritual  seed  of  his  sowing  had  already  come  to  fruitage. 

Work  on  the  building  was  pushed  with  energy,  and  the  sub- 
scribers soon  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  results.  On  the 
south  side  of  John  Street,  separated  from  the  sidewalk  by  a 
brick-paved  area  some  thirty  feet  square,  rose  a  plain  struc- 
ture of  ballast  stone,  veneered  with  light-blue  plaster.  The 
gable  fronted  the  street,  and  as  there  was  a  chimney,  but 
no  spire,  the  edifice  made  no  pretensions  to  ecclesiastical 
architecture.  It  was  42x60  feet,  and  the  interior  was  thrown 
into  one  barnlike  room,  probably  without  galleries  at  first, 
though  these  were  soon  added,  the  women  occupying  the  one 
on  the  right,  and  the  men  that  on  the  left.  The  pulpit,  which 
the  carpenter-preacher' is  said  to  have  made  with  his  own 
hands,  stood  opposite  the  entrance,  and  was  so  high  that  so 
sedate  a  preacher  as  Nathan  Bangs  said  it  always  made  him 
dizzy  to  speak  from  it.  The  benches  were  of  deal,  white 
with  scrubbing,  but  unpaintcd.     A  fireplace  took  the  chill  off 


First  Sermon  in  Old  John   Street 


19 


the  air  in  winter,  and  there  was  such  ventilation  as  the  win- 
dows might  furnish.  The  dim  light  of  tallow  candles  sufficed 
for  the  evening  service,  and  sooner  or  later  a  clock  faced  the 
preacher  from  the  gallery  front.  The  timepiece,  which  is 
inscribed,  "  He  ye  also  ready,  for  in  such  an  hour  as  ye  think 
not  the  Soil  of  mancometh,"  is  still  preserved  "alive"  in  the 
present  John  Street  Church. 

The    first   sermon    in    the    new    "  Wesley    Chapel,-'   as   the 
preaching  place  was  called,  was  preached  on  October  30,  1768, 


FROM   A    LITHOGRAPH 

"WESLEY    CHAPEL."      THE    FIRST    "JOHN"    STREET    CHURCH." 
The  building  on  the  right  was  used  as  the  preachers'  house  after  1770. 

by  Mr.  Embury,  who  had  been  employed  as  a  carpenter  upon 
its  erection.  His  text  was  from  Hosea  x,  12  :  "  Sow  to  your- 
selves in  righteousness,  reape  after  the  measure  of  mercie ; 
break  up  your  fallow  ground,  for  it  is  time  to  seeke  the  Lord, 
till  he  come  and  raine  righteousness  upon  you,"  to  follow  the 
quaint  style  of  the  "  Geneva  "  or  "  Breeches  "  Bible,  from 
which  he  probablv  read.  We  know  nothing  more  concerning 
the  service,  but  it  has  been   said  that   Mr.  Emburv  declared 


20  American   Methodism 

"  the  best  dedication  of  a  pulpit  was  to  preach  a  good  sermon 
in  it."  Certainly,  with  such  a  text  and  such  an  occasion,  with 
the  history  of  the  Lord's  doings  within  the  past  two  years 
still  fresh  in  his  mind,  with  a  throng  of  seven  hundred  ear- 
nest auditors  before  him,  and  with  the  eye  of  good  Barbara 
Heck  full  upon  him,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  usually  quiet 
preacher  was  fervid  in  his  exhortation,  and  the  tears  which 
were  so  near  his  eyes  streamed  down  his  weather-beaten 
cheeks  as  he  declared,  "It  is  time  to  seek  the  Lord,  till  he 
come  and  rain  righteousness  upon  you." 

For  more  than  a  year  Embury  and  Webb  continued  to 
preach  several  times  a  week  in  the  new  chapel,  occupying 
faithfully  until  Wesley  should  send  out  the  eagerly  awaited 
missionaries — so  faithfully,  indeed,  that  the  Dutch  dominie 
preached  against  their  doctrine.  The  first  of  the  English 
preachers,  Mr.  Williams,  reached  New  York  in  September, 
1769,  and  Embury  then  felt  free  to  follow  his  inclinations 
and  his  judgment  and  retire  from  the  city,  which  was  already 
becoming  a  hotbed  of  feeling  against  the  royal  government. 
In  January,  1770,  the  first  blood  of  the  Revolution  was  spilled 
in  the  "  Battle  of  Golden  Hill,"  a  collision  between  the  Red- 
coats and  the  Sons  of  Liberty  close  by  the  little  chapel.  We 
do  not  know  that  this  hastened  the  preacher's  decision,  but  we 
do  know  that  the  fall  of  this  year  found  him  settled  upon 
a  farm  in  Salem,  Albany  County,  N.  Y.,  with  the  Hecks  and 
other  Palatine  families  whom  he  had  long  known.  This  mi- 
gration was  not  an  isolated  case ;  for  the  angry  political  sky 
was  driving  into  the  interior  many  settlers  of  British  birth 
and  sympathies,  together  with  not  a  few  old  colonial  families 
who  preferred  peace  to  the  dangers  which  threatened  the  sea- 
board. 

The  John  Street  people  did   not  allow  their  first  preacher 


Mr.   Embury's   Farewell  Gift 


21 


to  go  away  empty-handed.  An  entry  in  the  old  account  book 
of  the  society,  dated  April  10,  1770,  reads:  "To  easli  paid 
Philip  Embury  to  buy  a  concordance,  £2  $s.  od." — which 
identical  volume,  the  third  edition  of  Cruden  (London,  1769), 
bearing-  the  inscription,  "Phil.  Embury,  April,  1770,"  may 
still  be  seen  in  the  library  of  the  Wesleyan  Theological  Col- 
lege at  Montreal.  Nor 
did  he  need  Mrs.  Heck 
to  keep  him  alive  to 
his  duty  in  his  new 
surroundings.  The 
farm  work  and  car- 
pentry, which  yielded 
him  his  livelihood, 
did  not  make  him  for- 
get his  call  to  preach. 
He  organized  classes 
on  the  Wesleyan  plan, 
and  was  instrumental 
in  gathering  the  Ash- 
grove  society,  of  which 
his  friend  and  neigh- 
bor, Thomas  Ashton,  a  Methodist  from  Ireland,  was  the  chief 
support.  This  society,  the  first  one  founded  in  America  north 
of  New  York  city,  was  the  pioneer  appointment  of  what  is  now 
the  Troy  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Embury  did  not  live  to  see  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  After 
his  death,  in  1773,  his  widow,  with  the  Hecks  and  some  other 
neighbors,  removed  to  Canada,  where  Barbara  Pleck  died  in 
1804,  at  the  ripe  age  of  seventy.  Since  her  conversion,  at  the 
age  of  eighteen,  she  had  lived  as  in  the  presence  of  her 
Saviour.      The  manner  of  her  death  was  beautiful.      She  had 


PHILIP    EMBURYS   CONCORDANCE. 

Presented  to  him  by  the  Methodists  of  New  York  on  his 
removal  in  April,  1770.  Preserved  in  the  library  of  the 
Wesleyan  Theological  College,  Montreal. 


22 


American  Methodism 


been  sitting  alone  one  August  day  in  the  orchard  behind  her 
son's  great  stone  house  by  the  majestic  St.  Lawrence  River. 
Her  eyes  were  on  her  husband's  old  German  Bible  which  lay  in 
her  lap,  but  her  thoughts  were  far  away.  Her  little  grandson 
found  her  sitting  thus,  but  her  soul  had  passed  to  Him  who 
gave  it.  This  woman,  who  did  so  much  for  American  Meth- 
odism, lies  buried  in   the  old   Blue  Church   burying  ground 


FROM   A    PHOTOGRAPH 


PAIL    HI'X'K'S    GERMAN    BIBLE. 
Now  in  the  possession  of  Victoria  University,  Toronto. 

near  Prescott,  Ontario.  In  the  same  graveyard  sleeps  Mar- 
garet, the  widow  of  Embury,  whose  second  husband  was  John 
Lawrence,  one  of  the  original  Methodists  of  New  York. 

Captain  Webb  might  be  on  the  retired  list  of  His  Britannic 
Majesty,  but  his  Christian  warfare  knew  no  furlough.  Such 
facts   as  we   gather   from  casual    notices   in   letters  and  local 


Captain  Webb  in  the  Saddle  23 

histories  only  serve  to  show  his  zeal  in  the  cause.  "  T.  T.," 
the  Methodist  who  described  the  work  to  Wesley  in  a  long 
letter,  dated  Xew  York,  April  II,  1768,  spoke  of  the  captain 
as  the  providential  means  of  attracting  popular  attention  to 
the  modest  services  which  Embury  had  been  conducting  in  a 
little  circle  of  his  fellow-countrymen.  The  news  that  a  one- 
eyed  Methodist  soldier  would  preach  in  full  regimentals  had 
filled  the  sail  loft  and  encouraged  the  faithful  to  build  a 
preaching  house  of  their  own. 

The  captain's  parish  was  as  wide  as  Wesley's.  He 
preached  wherever  he  could  get  a  hearing.  "  T.  T.  "  tells  us 
that  his  fiery  appeals  to  the  people  of  Long  Island,  where  his 
wife  had  kin,  had  resulted  in  twenty-four  conversions  before 
1768.  Blessed  with  some  property  and  his  pay,  the  cap- 
tain was  not  so  poverty-bound  as  his  brother  preacher,  who 
had  enough  to  do  to  support  his  family,  with  the  help  of  a  few 
shillings  now  and  then  from  the  Methodist  society  to  enable 
him  to  make  a  decent  appearance  in  the  pulpit.  Travel,  an 
expensive  indulgence  in  the  eighteenth  century,  was  not  for 
the  industrious  carpenter.  "Webb's  time  was  his  own,  and  in 
the  saddle  or  by  the  jolting  stage  he  traversed  the  Jerseys  to 
Philadelphia  certainly  as  early  as  1769,  perhaps  earlier, 
preaching  at  Burlington  the  first  Methodist  sermon  in  west 
Jersey.  His  sermons,  too,  were  the  earliest  from  Methodist 
lips  in  the  Quaker  city,  where  he  gathered  the  awakened  into 
a  class  of  seven  members  about  1768  in  the  sail  loft  of  Samuel 
Croft,  near  the  Delaware  River,  at  the  corner  of  Front  and 
Croft  Streets.  Fitzgerald,  Pennington,  Emerson,  and  Hood 
were  the  families  represented  in  that  first  class,  of  which 
Emerson  was  the  leader.  Hood,  the  second  leader,  lived 
until  1829,  and  was  then  reputed  the  oldest  living  Methodist 
in  the  Xew  World. 


24 


American   Methodism 


The  captain  also  collected  in  Philadelphia  the  goodly  sum 
of  £12  toward  the  New  York  chapel  fund,  for  which  he  was 
making  every  sacrifice.  A  year  or  two  later,  after  the 
arrival  of  the  Wesleyan  missionaries,  when  the  Philadelphia 
society  had  purchased  at  a  bargain  the  unfinished  church  edi- 
fice of  a  bankrupt  German  congregation,  afterward  famous  as 


FROM  AN  ENGRAVING  IN  THE  LADIES*   REPOSITORY,    1866. 

THE   BURIAL   PLACE   OF   THE   HECKS. 
In  the  "  Old  Blue"  Churchyard,  near  Prescott,  Ontario. 

St.  George's  "the  Methodist  Cathedral,"  Webb  freely  gave 
his  share  of  the  purchase  money,  and  his  name  appears  on 
the  original  list  of  trustees. 

Captain  Webb,  while  working  mightily  in  New  York  city, 
had  found  time  to  "  fell  a  few  trees  on  Long  Island,"  as  he 
described  his  effective  sermons  at  Jamaica  and  elsewhere. 
From  Philadelphia,  likewise,  he  made  excursions  into  the 
surrounding  country,  pressing  his  message  upon  all  who 
would  hear.  About  1769  we  have  glimpses  of  him  at  several 
points    in    south    Jersey,    southwestern    Pennsylvania,    and 


Webb  Meets   the   Maryland  Pioneer 


25 


northern  Delaware.  Pilmoor,  the  Wesleyan  missionary, 
writing  of  the  work  which  had  opened  in  Maryland,  couples 
the  name  of  this  zealous  Christian  soldier  with  that  of 
Robert  Strawbridge,  another  Irish  carpenter  who  had  been 
proclaiming  in  the  forest  clearings  of  the  South  the  same  full 
and  free  Gospel  which  Philip  Embury  was  preaching  in  the 
northern  city. 


FROM   A   PHOTOGRAPH. 


FACSIMILE   OF  THE   SIGNATURE   IN    EMBURY'S   CONCORDANCE. 


c>-> 


CHAPTER  III 

Strawbridge,  the  Maryland  Farmer-Preacher 

An  Open  Question. — Robert  Strawbkidge  in  Ireland. — Beginnings 
in  Maryland. — The  Log  Chapel.— Captain  Webb's  Discovery. 
— Independence. — "Their  Works  do  Follow  Them." 

BEFORE  the  Revolution,  when  the  irregularity  of  the 
mails  and  the  difficulty  of  travel  restricted  communi- 
cation and  kept  the  newspapers  from  getting  even 
such  news  as  was  of  general  interest,  an  event  of  such  appar- 
ent insignificance  as  the  holding  of  religious  meetings  by  a 
simple  farmer  in  a  backwoods  settlement  could  gain  little 
publicity.  We  have  no  knowledge  that  the  little  company  of 
Methodists  in  New  York  city  were  aware  of  the  presence  of 
any  of  their  fellow-religionists  in  the  vSouth  until  1768,  at  the 
earliest.  It  was  probably  Captain  Webb,  while  on  one  of  his 
sallies  southward  from  Philadelphia,  who  first  brought  to 
light  the  good  work  of  Robert  Strawbridge  in  Maryland. 
The  virulence  of  the  old  contest  for  priority  between  New 
York  and  Maryland  Methodism  has  spent  itself.  The  two 
are  entitled  to  equal  merit.  The  dates  of  the  development 
in  New  York  are  established  by  documentary  evidence,  but 
the  testimony  on  the  southern  side  makes  a  strong  case,  and 
is   thoroughly  consistent  with   the  theory  of  Strawbridge's 

simultaneous  movement. 

26 


Robert  Straw-bridge  in   Ireland 


27 


The  southern  pioneer  was,  like  Embury,  from  the  Emerald 
Isle,  but  not  of  German  ancestry.  The  Straw-bridges  were 
farmers  from  County  Leitrim,  and  Robert  was  born  at  Drum- 
mersnave  (now  Drumsna),  a  village  of  a  single  street  near  the 


FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH. 


THE   VILLAGE   STREET   OF   DRUMSNA. 
Where  Robert  Strawbiidge  was  born. 

lovely  Shannon.  Wesley,  who  visited  the  locality  in  1758, 
found  the  region  a  paradise  of  natm-e,  though  the  people 
treated  him  vilely. 

The  dates  of  Strawbridge's  life  are  very  uncertain.  He  is 
said  to  have  been  converted  in  his  native  village  and  joined 
the  Methodists.  Driven  out  by  persecution  because  of  his 
proselyting  among  his  Catholic  neighbors,  he  took  refuge  in 
Sligo  and  Cavan,  where  he  exercised  his  gifts  as  a  preacher. 
At  Terryhugan  he  married  Miss  Piper,  a  Wesleyan  lady,  and 
soon  after,  "probably  in  1766,"  says  Crook,  the  chief  Irish 
authority  upon  his  movements,  emigrated  to  America. 

Robeit  Strawbridge  was  of  medium  height,  with  dark  hair 


28 


American  Methodism 


and  skin.  His  voice  was  unusually  melodious  and  his  sing- 
ing was  a  delight  to  hear.  To  his  rich  spiritual  experience 
of  the  truths  which  he  had  doubtless  heard  from  Wesley's 
own  lips  he  added  the  warm  heart  and  natural  eloquence  of 


FROM   A   PHOTOGRAPH. 

REPUTED    BIRTHPLACE   OF    ROBERT    STRAWBRIDGE,    DRUMSNA. 


his  countrymen.  He  had  the  Celtic  restlessness  withal,  and 
came  over  with  his  young  wife  to  improve  his  fortunes  in  the 
new  country. 

Strawbridge's  occupation  in  the  old  country  had  been  that 
of  Embury — a  carpenter.  But  he  changed  his  calling  and 
his  sky  together.  He  arrived  in  Maryland  at  a  time  when 
the  end  of  long  Indian  troubles  had  opened  to  settlement  the 
upper  part  of  the  province,  and  in  the  region  of  .Sam's 
Creek,    in  the  great  County  of   Frederick,   the  young  Irish 


Preaching  and   Baptizing 


29 


carpenter  settled  as  a  pioneer  farmer.  We  do  not  know  the 
date  of  his  first  sermon,  though  some,  who  set  an  early 
date  for  his  arrival,  would  place  it  as  early  as  1762.  lie 
was  not  east  in  the  mold  of  the  retiring  and  self-distrusting" 


PhiLdelpSu 


PENNSYLVAN 


METHODIST    MARYLAND. 
Showing  the  locality  of  the  early  labors  of  Robert  Strawbridge. 

Embury,  and  probably  began  preaching-  as  soon  as  he  could 
get  a  few  of  his  neighbors  together.  Moreover,  there  were 
no  churches  or  clergymen  in  that  up-country  wilderness,  and 
this  zealous  layman  did  not  hesitate  to  administer  baptism  to 
believers  and  their  children.      The  meetings  in  the  settlers' 


30 


American  Methodism 


cabins  grew  in  interest.  A  Methodist  society  was  formed, 
with  John  Evans,  Andrew  Poulson,  Benjamin  Marcarel,  and 
John  England  among  the  earliest  members.  Together  they 
built  a  preachinghouse  of  hewn  logs  near  Sam's  Creek,  on 
John  England's  farm,  on  which  also  and  one-fourth  of  a  mile 


DRAWN   BY   W     B.    OAVIS  FROM  A  LITHOGRAPH. 

THE   OLD   JOHN    EVANS    HOUSE. 
From  the  Centennial  Album.  t866. 

west  of  the  church  stood  the  cabin  of  the  preacher,  while 
England's  house  was  between  the  two.  The  first  chapel  of 
the  Maryland  Methodists  was  twenty  feet  square.  There  was 
no  need  of  any  subscription  to  the  building  fund  of  this 
primitive  meetinghouse.  A  site  could  be  had  for  the  ask- 
ing. Willing  hands  felled  the  trees,  squared  the  logs,  and 
raised  the  roof.  No  door  was  hung,  and  the  window  open- 
ings were  left  unglazed.  When  Asbury  preached  there  in 
the  winter  of  1772  he  pitied  his  hearers,  shivering  on  their 
unbacked  benches,  and  had  to  tie  his  handkerchief  over  his 
head  to  save  his  own  ears  from  frost. 


"A  Plain,   Practical  Sermon  at  7  A.   M."  31 

The  building  of  the  famous  log  chapel  did  nut  anchor  this 
restless  evangelist.  The  needs  of  the  new  settlements,  left 
unvisited  by  the  lethargic  clergy  of  the  Established  Church, 
were  a  call  to  which  Strawbridge's  glowing'  heart  responded 
eagerly.  When  his  work  on  the  farm  would  permit — and 
often  when  it  would  not  —  he  went  on  longer  or  shorter 
preaching  excursions  through  northwestern  Maryland  and 
parts  of  the  adjacent  provinces,  though  few  traces  of  his 
movements  still  survive.  We  know  that  to  the  British  Wes- 
leyan  Conference  at  Bristol  in  1768  there  came  entreaties  for 
help,  not  only  from  New  York,  but  from  "a  few  people  in 
Maryland,  who  had  lately  been  awakened  under  the  preach- 
ing of  Robert  Strawbridge."  Captain  Webb  probably  came  to 
his  aid  for  a  while  in  the  fall  of  1  769,  and  on  Sunday,  January 
14,  1770,  the  backwoods  preacher  emerges  into  documentary 
history,  being  on  record  as  giving  "a  plain,  practical  sermon 
at  seven  in  the  morning"  in  St.  George's  Chapel,  Philadelphia. 

Strawbridge  had  qualities  of  heart  which  grappled  his 
friends  to  him  with  hooks  of  steel.  Thev  cared  for  his 
family  during  his  protracted  absences  from  home,  and  his 
later  years  were  spent  on  a  property  at  Long  Green,  Balti- 
more County,  which  a  friendly  patron,  Captain  Charles 
Ridgely,  granted  to  him  free  of  rent.  He  had  that  rare 
quality,  also,  of  stirring  up  his  converts  to  exercise  their 
gifts.  Many  of  the  first  race  of  preachers  received  their 
impulse  from  his  earnest  words.  Among  these  was  Richard 
Owen,  whose  claim  to  be  the  first  native  American  Methodist 
preacher  so  long  went  unchallenged. 

In  the  printed  Minutes  of  the  first  Conference  of  the  Ameri- 
can preachers  (1773)  Robert  Strawbridge's  name  is  included 
in  the  list  of  itinerants.  It  appears  but  once  more,  in  1775,  and 
disappears  without  comment.      The  possession  of  a  wife  and 


32 


American  Methodism 


children  was  enough  to  disqualify  most  men  for  the  arduous 
labors  of  a  traveling  preacher  at  that  time.      But  in  Straw- 

briclore's  case  there 


was  a  more  seri- 
ous objection.  As 
the  Methodist  so- 
cieties began  to 
grow  in  numbers 
and  importance, 
Mr.  Wesley  sent 
out  missionaries 
with  strict  injunc- 
tions   to     enforce 


ORAWN   BV   P.   E.    FLINTOFF.  FROM  PHOTOGRAPHS. 

STRAWBRIDGE   MEMORIAL   CHURCH, 
BALTIMORE. 

Memorial  tablet.  Pulpit  of  logs  from  the  first 

Preachinghouse. 


the  Wesleyan  discipline  among  preachers  and  people.     Wes- 
ley still  clung  to  the  theory  that  Methodism  was  not  a  Church, 


-  -  a. 


'£,    O; 


*WtJ!^    — _        


'>rr&^z.*-  *. 


y. 


7 


'-o-rts* 


¥s=t<y*^^      y%e^J^ 


^ 


'     X 


y^. 


i.~*  l-aJuuJ,  ^HL^^^l  mJlTVA  "fc^^fi 


'6 —  < 


PHOTOGRAPHED   FROM  THE   RECORDS  OF  THE   ORPHANS'   COURT,    BALTIMORE. 


INVENTORY   OF   ROBERT    STRAWBRIDGE  S   ESTATE. 


Fretting  under  Discipline 


35 


but  a  society  of  earnest  believers,  within  the  pale  of  the 
Church   of  England.     Accordingly   his   helpers   in   England 

and  America  were  merely  lay  preachers,  and  members  of 
the  society  were  urged  to  look  to  the  rector  of  the  par- 
ish for  the  sacraments.  Strawbridge,  long-  accustomed  to 
choose  his  own  fields  of  labor  and  to  govern  his  own  minis- 
terial conduct,  fretted  under  the  new  discipline.     He  asserted 


DRAWN  BY  P.   E.    FLINTOFF. 

HOUSE   WHERE   STRAWBRIDGE   DIED,   AND    HIS    FUNERAL. 
From  the  drawing  in  the  Centennial  Album,  i366. 

his  perfect  fitness  to  administer  the  sacraments,  greatly  to  the 
dissatisfaction  of  the  strict  young  Asbury,  who  was  ten  years 
longer  in  reaching  the  same  conclusion.  In  1778,  when  the 
Conference  rule  was  stiffened  further,  Asbury  endeavored  to 
have  Strawbridge  yield.  But  he  was  "  inflexible,"  and  the 
man  of  iron  discipline  records  of  him  that  "he  would  not 
administer  the  ordinances  tinder  our  direction  at  all." 

Though  not  on  the  itinerant  roll,  Mr.  vStrawbridge  was 
neither  silent  nor  idle.  He  continued  to  preach  as  oppor- 
tunity offered  until  his  death.    He  died  in  1781  or  1782, and  was 


36 


American   Methodism 


buried  in  an  apple  orchard  overlooking  Baltimore.  When 
the  news  of  his  decease  reached  Asbury  he  grimly  affirmed 
that  the  Lord  had  removed  him  "because  he  was  in  a  way  to 
do  hurt  to  his  cause,"  though  he  was  willing  to  believe  that 
God  had  "saved  him  in  mercy"  at  last,  so  hard  was  it  in 

1 78  i    to  look  without  preju- 


dice upon  an  unordained 
preacher,  who  dared  baptize 
and  give  the  bread  and  wine 
to  the  children  whom  his 
voice  had  led  to  repentance  ! 
But  those  who  had  been  with 
the  high-spirited  Irishman 
through  good  and  evil  re- 
port, who  had  witnessed  his 
self-denying  zeal  for  his 
Master's  cause,  and  had 
heard  his  mellow  voice 
raised  in  song  and  prayer 
and  persuasive  pleading 
with  the  sinner,  would  let 
no  ecclesiastical  quibble 
shake  their  loyalty  to  their 
friend,  or  cause  them  to 
doubt  his  fidelity  to  the 
cause.  Richard  Owen 
preached  the  funeral  sermon 
from  the  words : 


BY  W.   B.    DAVIS.  FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH 

strawbridoe's  monument. 

In   Mount   Olivet   Cemetery,    Baltimore. 


"and  i  heard  a  voice  from  heaven  saying  unto  me,  wri'ie, 
Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord  from  henceforth: 
Yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their  labors; 
and  their  works  do  follow  them." 


CHAPTER  IV 


Helpers  from  Abroad 


International  Relations.— Letters  from  America. — "T.  T."  and 
Thomas  Bell.— "We  would  sell  our  coats  and  shirts." — The 
Volunteers,  Boardman  and  Pilmoor.— Robert  Williams  First 
of  All. 

IT  was  most  natural  that  the  Methodist  societies  in  Amer- 
ica should  acknowledge  their  relationship  to  the  great 
Wesleyan  body  in  the  mother  country  and  apply  to 
it  for  material  aid.  The  three  earliest  preachers  in  America 
— Strawbridge,  Webb,  and  Embury — and  many  of  the  early 
members  were  emigrants  who  had  belonged  to  Wesley's  so- 
cieties abroad. 

The  anti-English  feeling  in  the  colonies  was  not  yet  strong 
enough  to  prevent  such  a  renewal  of  old  ties,  and  Wesley 
himself,  who  had  already  taken  the  world  for  his  parish,  had 
confessed  to  yearnings  for  the  welfare  of  the  unshepherded 
flocks  be)*ond  the  Atlantic.  The  societies,  moreover,  needed 
help  which  America  could  not  then  afford.  Friendly  citizens, 
and  even  the  Anglican  clergy,  might  assist  in  building  Metho- 
dist preaehinghouses,  but  there  was  a  pitiful  lack  of  men 
who  could  preach  from  the  treasure  of  their  own  assured  sal- 
vation the  gospel  of  a  universal  hope  and  a  life  of  holiness. 

They  needed  help  from  that  band  of  ardent  evangelists  which 

37 


38  American  Methodism 

Wesley  had  been  mustering  and  drilling  in  the  three  king- 
doms for  a  generation.  Nor  were  they  slow  to  present  their 
claims. 

In  a  letter  dated  "  New  York,  April  1 1,  1768,"  an  English- 
man wrote  to  Wesley  over  the  signature  "  T.  T."  an  account 
of  the  state  of  religion  in  that  city,  especially  narrating 
the  beginnings  of  the  Methodist  society  there,  which  was  just 
breaking  ground  for  its  first  edifice  in  John  Street.  After 
adroitly  explaining  how  he  has  dissuaded  the  brethren  from 
appealing  to  Wesley  for  a  collection,  he  says:  "Yet  so  far 
would  I  earnestly  beg,  if  you  would  intimate  our  circum- 
stances to  particular  persons  of  ability,  perhaps  God  would 
open  their  hearts  to  assist  this  infant  society,  and  contribute 
to  the  first  preachinghouse  on  the  original  Methodist  plan  in 
all  America  (excepting  Mr.  Whitefield's  Orphan  House  in 
Georgia);  but  I  shall  write  no  more  on  this  subject." 

"There  is  another  point,"  continued  "  T.  T.,"  "  far  more 
material,  and  in  which  I  must  importune  your  assistance  not 
only  in  my  own  name,  but  also  in  the  name  of  the  whole  so- 
ciety. We  want  an  able  and  experienced  preacher ;  one  who 
has  both  grace  and  gifts  necessary  to  the  work.  God  has  not 
indeed  despised  the  day  of  small  things.  There  is  a  real 
work  of  grace  begun  in  many  hearts  by  the  preaching  of  Mr. 
Webb  and  Mr.  Embury,  but,  although  they  are  both  useful, 
and  their  hearts  in  the  work,  they  want  many  qualifications 
for  such  an  undertaking ;  and  the  progress  of  the  Gospel  here 
depends  much  on  the  qualifications  of  preachers."  The  ideal 
preacher  he  must  have  is  "a  man  of  wisdom,  of  sound 
faith,  and  a  good  disciplinarian  :  one  whose  heart  and  soul  are 
in  the  work  ;  and  I  doubt  not  but  by  the  goodness -of  God  such 
a  flame  would  soon  be  kindled  as  would  never  stop  until  it 
reached  the  great  South  Sea.     We  may  make  many  shifts  to 


"We  Would   Sell  Our  Coats  and   Shirts"  39 

avoid  temporal  inconveniences,  but  we  cannot  purchase  such 
a  preacher  as  I  have  described.  Dear  sir,  I  entreat  you,  for 
the  good  of  thousands,  to  use  your  utmost  endeavors  to  send 
one  over.  With  respect  to  money  for  the  payment  of  the 
preachers'  passage  over,  if  they  could  not  procure  it,  wc 
would  sell  our  coats  and  shirts  to  procure  it  for  them.  I 
most  earnestly  beg  an  interest  in  your  prayers,  and  trust  you 
and  many  of  our  brethren  will  not  forget  the  church  in  this 
wilderness." 

This  is  doubtless  the  same  letter  from  America  which  Wes- 
ley this  year  allowed  one  of  his  preachers  "  to  read  publicly, 
and  to  receive  whatever  the  hearers  were  willing  to  give." 
The  substance  of  it  was  also  laid  before  the  Conference. 

About  the  same  time  a  Methodist  mechanic  named  Thomas 
Bell,  who  had  labored  in  the  erection  of  Wesley  Chapel  in 
New  York,  wrote  to  Wesley  a  letter  of  less  polish,  but  no  less 
forcible:  "  Mr.  Wesley  says  the  first  message  of  the  preach- 
ers is  to  the  lost  sheep  of  England.  And  are  there  none  in 
America?  They  have  strayed  from  England  into  the  wild 
woods  here,  and  they  are  running  wild  after  this  world. 
They  are  drinking  their  wine  in  bowls,  and  are  jumping  and 
dancing  and  serving  the  devil  in  the  groves  and  under  the 
green  trees.  And  are  not  these  lost  sheep?  And  will  none 
of  the  preachers  come  here.  Where  is  Mr.  Brownfield? 
Where  is  John  Pawson?  Where  is  Nicholas  Manners?  Are 
they  living,  and  will  they  not  come?" 

In  October,  1768,  Dr.  Wrangel,  a  distinguished  Swedish 
preacher,  returning  to  Sweden  after  laboring  in  Philadel- 
phia, dined  with  Wesley  in  London,  and  urged  him  to  extend 
his  marvelous  evangelistic  system  to  the  New  World,  and  he 
showed  the  sincerity  of  his  belief  by  recommending  his  con- 
vert, John   Hood,  with  his  bosom  friend,  Lambert  Wilmer, 


<0 


American  Methodism 


two  young  Philadelphians  of  rare  spiritual  gifts,  to  join  the 
Methodists. 

The  British  Conference  of   1768  postponed  action  on  the 


fROM  THE   COPPERPLATE   iN  THE   ARMINIAn   MAGAZINE, 

REV.    RICHARD    BOARDMAN. 

The  companion  of  Joseph  Pilmoor,  one  of  the  first  Methodist  missionaries 
to  America. 

entreaties  from  America,  but  in  1769,  in  the  Conference  at 
Leeds,  Wesley  spoke  of  the  needs  of  the  work,  and  called  for 
volunteers.  New  York  was  then  as  many  weeks  distant  from 
England'  as  it  now  is  in  days,  and  the  North  Atlantic  voyage 


The  Western  Pioneers  41 

was  no  holiday  run.  Parliament  was  ringing-  with  denuncia- 
tions of  the  rebellious  colonists,  and  ' '  the  church  in  the  wilder- 
ness" might  turn  out  to  be  a  hornets'  nest.  Not  a  man  volun- 
teered. At  sunrise  next  morning  Wesley's  text  was,  "  I  have 
nourished  and  brought  up  children,  and  they  have  rebelled 
against  me."  Whether  the  sermon  was  political,  or  whether 
it  touched  the  reluctance  of  the  brethren  to  undertake  this 
mission,  d<  >es  not  appear  ;  but  when  the  call  for  volunteers  was 
next  repeated  two  experienced  preachers,  Richard  Boardman 
and  Joseph  Pilmoor,  "  men  well  reported  of  by  all,"  offered  ^ 
themselves  for  the  difficult  service.  A  missionary  collection 
was  taken,  of  which  £50  was  sent  to  the  New  York  Society 
"as  a  token  of  brotherly  love,"  and  X20,  which  was  after- 
ward supplemented  by  contributions  from  London  and 
Bristol,  was  devoted  to  the  expenses  of  the  journey.  The 
British  press  had  only  ridicule  for  the  noble  project,  and  mock- 
ingly announced  certain  forthcoming  promotions  among  the 
Methodists,  including  "Rev.  John  Wesley,  Bishop  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Rev.  Chaides  Wesley,  Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia." 

The  first  two  foreign  missionaries  of  Methodism  would  be 
worthy  of  more  than  a  casual  notice  even  had  their  field 
been  some  obscure  quarter  of  the  globe,  but  when  we  consider 
that  that  field  was  our  own  beloved  country,  and  that  we  have 
entered  so  abundantly  into  their  labors,  their  personality 
becomes  of  commanding  interest. 

Richard  Boardman  was  thirty-one  years  old,  a  pious,  amiable 
man,  possessed  of  a  strong  understanding,  and,  according  to 
Wesley's  characterization,  "  greatly  beloved  and  respected  by 
all  who  knew  him.  The  place  and  circumstances  of  his  birth 
are  in  doubt,  lie  had  been  traveling  circuits  in  Ireland  and 
the  north  since  1763.  He  had  come  up  to  the  Leeds  Con- 
ference from  the  Dales  with  a  irreat  grief  on  his  heart,  for  the 


42 


American  Methodism 


grass  was  not  yet  green  over  the  grave  in  which  the  remains 
of  his  wife  and  little  daughter  lay  side  by  side. 

Joseph  Pilmoor  was  a  Yorkshireman,  only  a  few  months 
the  junior  of  his  colleague,  and  had  been  for  four  years  a 

traveling  preacher.  He  was 
early  converted  and  placed 
by  Wesley  at  Kingswood 
School,  where  he  made  the 
best  use  of  his  time,  as  is 
shown  by  his  mental  accom- 
plishments and  scholarly 
tastes.  The  year  1768  he 
spent  in  Wales,  musing 
much,  as  he  went  his  round, 
upon  "  the  dear  Americans" 
whose  cry  he  had  heard 
at  Bristol,  and  reaching  the 
determination  "to  sacrifice 
everything  for  their  sakes." 
Amid  these  exercises  he 
wrote  out  a  solemn  cove- 
nant with  God  "to  be 
fully  and  forever  his,"  and, 
though  happy  in  his  work,  he  was  drawn  "  with  such  longing 
desires  for  the  advancement  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom" 
that,  as  he  says,  "I  was  made  perfectly  willing  to  forsake 
my  kindred  and  native  land,  and  all  that  was  most  near 
and  dear  to  me  on  earth,  that  I  might  spread  abroad 
the  honors  of  his  glorious  name."  When  he  had  volun- 
teered  and  been  accepted  the  first  doubts  came.  But  calling 
upon  God  with  strong  cries  and  tears,  he  was  delivered,  and 
hesitated  no  more.      He   bade    farewell   to   the   Conference, 


REV.   JOSEPH    PILMOOR. 

One  of  the  pioneer  Methodist  missionaries  in  America, 

afterward  a  minister  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 

Church  in  Philadelphia. 


The  Arrival  of  the  Missionaries  43 

and  received  the  blessing'  of  his  aged  mother.  Standing  be- 
fore his  father's  door  he  preached  to  his  fellow-townsmen, 
who  thronged  to  see  that  strangest  of  sights  in  those  days — 
a  foreign  missionary. 

The  two  missionaries  were  warmly  welcomed  in  London. 
The  great  Whitefield  prayed  with  them,  and  advised  them 
with  a  father's  tenderness.  Charles  Wesley  gave  them  his 
benediction,  and  they  sailed  from  Gravesend,  August  22, 
1769,  on  board  the  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  James  Sparks  master. 
They  were  in  high  spirits.  "  We  had,"  said  Pilmoor,  "  what 
we  believed  a  call  from  God ;  we  had  the  approbation  and 
authority  of  three  godly  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  likewise  the  authority  of  more  than  a  hundred  preachers 
of  the  Gospel,  who  are  laboring  day  and  night  to  save  souls 
from  destruction  and  advance  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Hence 
we  concluded  we  had  full  power,  according  to  the  Xew  Testa- 
ment, to  preach  the  everlasting  Gospel  and  to  do  all  possible 
good  to  mankind." 

After  a  trying  voyage  of  eight  weeks,  in  which  the  buffet- 
ings  of  the  equinoctial  gales  could  not  disturb  their  serenity 
of  soul,  the  two  missionaries  disembarked  at  Gloucester  Point, 
New  Jersey.  Their  first  act  was  to  join  in  a  doxology  in 
praise  to  God  for  their  safe  arrival.  This  done,  they  walked 
four  miles  along  the  Delaware,  to  Philadelphia,  where  they 
found  cordial  welcome  and  entertainment.  The  Methodists 
of  the  city  sought  them  out,  and  Captain  Webb,  who  had 
come  from  Xew  York  to  receive  them,  greeted  them 
effusively.  "Our  souls  rejoiced,"  says  Pilmoor,  "to  meet 
with  such  a  valiant  soldier  of  Jesus  in  this  distant  land." 
After  a  day  or  two  the  pair  separated,  Boardman,  whose 
seniority  seems  to  have  given  him  a  certain  authority,  going 
to  New  York,  and  his  associate  remaining  in  charge  of   the 


44 


American  Methodism 


little   flock   which  they   had   so  unexpectedly  found    in    the 
Quaker  capital. 

When  Boardman  reached  New  York  he  found  that  another 
English  preacher  had  arrived  there  ahead  of  him,  and  had 
been  laboring  with  success  in  Wesley  Chapel.     A  few  days 

later  the  same 
forerunner  of 
the  Conference 
appointees, 
then  on  his  way 
from  New  York 
to  Maryland, 
called  on  Pil- 
moor  in  Phila- 
delphia. His 
name  was  Rob- 
ert Williams, 
and  the  story 
of  his  brief 
connection  with  the  work  is  replete  with   interest. 

Williams  was  an  English  local  preacher  who  had  been  at 
one  time  an  itinerant  in  Ireland.  He  came  to  America  of  his 
own  accord,  after  obtaining  Wesley's  permission  to  work  here 
subject  to  the  direction  of  the  regular  missionaries.  So  poor 
was  he  that  he  had  to  sell  his  horse  to  pay  his  debts,  and  his 
worldly  store  is  said  to  have  been  reduced  to  a  loaf  and  a 
bottle  of  milk  when  he  arrived  at  his  port  of  embarkation. 
His  friend  Thomas  Ashton,  a  liberal  Dublin  Methodist,  who 
was  then  migrating  to  the  New  World,  provided  for  his  com- 
fort. The  vessel  made  port  at  Norfolk,  m  Virginia,  late  in 
the  summer  of  1769,  and  the  story  goes  that  Williams,  with- 
out an  acquaintance  in  the  place,  strolled  up  the  main  street 


OLD  WESLEYAN  CHAPEL,  PEASEHOLM  GREEN, 

ENGLAND. 

Here  the  American  missionaries  preached  and  took  their  first  collection 

for  their  work  on  their  way  from  Conference. 


A   Doorstep   Preacher 


45 


at  dusk,  and  choosing  a  doorstep  for  a  pulpit,  took  out 
his  hymn  book  and  began  to  sing.  Amid  the  curious 
throng,  who  paused  to  listen  and  stare,    he   knelt  and  prayed 

for  the  welfare  of  the  town  and     F — -  -  ■ — -"&?:■■■/•  -v*'a 

people.  1  he  wife  of  a  sea  cap  ^  ^  ggg^^  Jg& 
tain    offered    him    shelter,    and      ;Jj    j^L,  Z^ /:■-„., ;„/' 


that  night,  as  he  prayed  with  j^/vAy^ 

her    household,    not    only    was  .  Jp§s#z/t>£  i^&^v  -'     /- 

her   own  heart  touched,  but    it  ^A'^rU^ ftA/^fiyn-"^-^d2 
used    to   be    told    anion q-    Nor 


THE    EARLIEST   OF   AMERICAN 
QUARTERLY   TICKETS. 


folk    Methodists    that    her    ab- 
sent   husband,    far    away    Oil    the      From  the  original  in  the  library  of  Drew  Theo- 
logical Seminary. 

billow,    was    irresistibly   drawn 

that  very  night  to   seek  and  find  forgiveness  for  his  sins. 

In  September  Williams  was  in  New  York,  and  the  oldest 
American  quarterly  ticket  in  existence  is  one  which  he  gave 
to  Hannah  Dean  three  weeks  before  the  Mary  and  Elizabeth 
reached  her  moorings  in  the  Delaware. 

Though  we  lose  sight  of  this  eager  soul-winner  for  a  few 
months  after  his  passage  through  Philadelphia  in  November, 


o                   ,,    ,  <* 

21                                  marsh            l/"3*  0. 

|     O   rtTRIVE  to  enter  in  at  the  <£ 

I  ■  ■*   3    ftraighl  Gats.  % 

^    Lt'KE    Kill.    14.  flt 


July  9.    1770. 

BOVE  ail  Things  have  fer- 
renr.  Charity  among  your- 
feWes. 
1  Pit. 


ii.  ;**£.-»« /j^« 

EARLY   QUARTERLY   TICKETS. 

Given  out  by  Methodist  preachers  at  Wesley  Chapel,  New  York. 

1769,  we  shall  again  find  him  in  advance  of  the  missionaries 
— the  most  untiring  of  them  all.  Thus,  as  has  so  often  been 
the  case  in  the  history  of  the  outspread  of  Methodism,  the 
way  has  been  prepared  for  the  regular  appointee  of  the  Con- 
ference by  some  humble  but  zealous  layman  whose  devotion 
has  conquered  all  obstacles  in  the  name  of  the  Lord. 


CHAPTER   V 
Earliest  Missionary  Labors 

Beginning  at  the  Cities.— Brief  Time  Limit.— John  Street.— In 
Jails  and  Almshouses.— Watch  Night  Service.— St.  George's, 
Philadelphia.— Intercession.— A  Headstrong  Helper. 

TWO  years  passed  before  the  Wesleyan  Conference  sent 
another  pair  of  missionaries- to  reinforce  the  pioneers 
Boardman  and  Pilmoor.  Meanwhile  the  little  band 
of  noble  irregulars — Embury  in  the  North,  Strawbridge  in 
the  South,  Evans  in  New  Jersey,  and  Webb  and  Williams  all 
along  the  line — contributed  zealously  to  the  spread  of  Metho- 
dist doctrine,  while  a  few  young  Marylanders  caught  inspira- 
tion from  their  spiritual  father  and  began  to  lift  their  voices  in 
public  exhortation.  The  two  regularly  appointed  missiona- 
ries established  their  headquarters  with  the  societies  in  New 
York  and  Philadelphia,  exchanging  stations  three  or  four 
times  a  year. 

Boardman  first  arrived  in  New  York  in  the  last  of  October, 
1769,  and  forthwith  paid  to  the  treasurer  of  the  Methodist 
society  £25  16s.  on  account  of  the  money  subscribed  by  the 
brethren  in  the  British  Conference.  The  remainder  was  sent 
over  in  the  form  of  Methodist  books,  which  were  soon  dis- 
posed of.     On  November  1  he  began  to  apply  the  Wesleyan 

46 


Regulations  for  the  Preachers      ■  47 

system  to  the  condition  of  the  society  by  means  of  the  follow- 
ing specific  regulations : 

■•  Mr.  Richard  Boardman,  Assistant  to  and  Preacher  in 
connection  with  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,  Also  Philip  Embury, 
Local  preacher,  and  William  Lupton,  a  Trustee  and  Steward 


tin/Us  /,',  «  yif/yA,  ittat  fcccLrcs dftt*    £></»<*</  6> rf?r*rrS*  JLm*e£f* #//■/%? 

2-",%//%/f    ''/rat*  fie    fh*,/,;*,   0'/  o£"U&'y  ?>"Tr>ss]p& 
tj*0/*y  //*■/// s,y,    tf&f.  /rs/    t W^'a-/  t  ^-yil^/  /rw^w;   t%t*£r7$£,  i&$C<**/(^ 


THE   FIRST    REGULATIONS    FOR   THE    PREACHERS    IN    NEW    YORK, 

NOVEMBER,    1 769. 

Reproduced  from  the  original  entry  in  the  first  record  book  of  the  Methodist  society  in  New  York. 

(in  New  York),  thinking  it  necessary  that  some  regulations 
should  be  made  for  the  Preachers  in  New  York,  agreed 

"1.  That  each  Preacher,  having  Labored  three  months  in 
New  York,  Shall  receive  three  Guineas  to  provide  themselves 
with  Wearing  apparel. 

"2.  That  there  shall  be  preaching  on  Sunday  Morning 
and  .Sunday  Evening,  also  on  Tuesday  and  Thursday  Evenings, 
and  the  Preacher  to  meet  the  Society  Every  Wednesday 
Evening." 

In  addition  to  the  "  quarterage  "  or  salary  of  three  guineas, 


48 


American   Methodism 


the  preachers  received  money  to  pay  for  their  board  and 
traveling  expenses.  The  preachers'  house  stood  beside  the 
chapel  m  John  Street,  and  the  colored  sexton  and  his  wife 
attended  to  the  comfort  of  the  itinerants,  who  were  generally 
unmarried  men.     The  house  was  furnished  by  loan  and  gift, 

and  the  inventory  of  its 
contents  includes  some 
noteworthy  items :  nine 
pictures,  set  bed  curtains, 
and  a  small  looking-glass, 
one  bed  sprey,  two  green 
window  curtains,  four 
silver  teaspoons,  and 
three  wineglasses. 

Boardman  was  greatly 
cheered  by  the  prospect 
in  his  new  charge.  He 
wrote  to  Wesley  of  the 
crowds  which  thronged 
the  chapel.  "There 
appears,"  he  says,  "in 
the  Americans  such  a 
willingness  to  hear  the 
word  as  I  never  saw  before."  Among  the  early  converts 
was  John  Mann,  who  ministered  to  the  society  during  the 
British  occupation  of  the  city  and  afterward  helped  to  found 
Methodism  in  Xova  Scotia.  The  religious  zeal  of  his  African 
hearers  deeply  moved  him,  especially  the  distress  of  one  poor 
slave  woman  who  could  neither  eat  nor  sleep  because  her 
master  would  not  allow  her  to  attend  the  meetings. 

In  the  spring  of  1770  Pilmoor  came  over  to  Xew  York  for 
the   first  time.      "Our  coming  to  America  has  not  been  in 


FROM  THE  ENGRAVING  BY   flITCHIE  IN  WAKELETS       LOST  CHAPTERS.  ' 

PETER   WILLIAMS. 

An  early  sexton  of  Wesley  Chapel,  John  Street, 
New  York. 


Religion  a  Favorite  Topic  in   New  York  49 

vain,"  he  wrote  home  to  England.      "Our  congregations  are 

large,  and  we  have  the  pious  of  most  congregations  to  hear 
us.  The  religion  of  Jesus  is  a  favorite  topic  in  New  York. 
Many  of  the  gay  and  polite  speak  much  about  grace  and  per- 
severance." The  first  care  of  the  two  Wesleyans,  when  they 
were  together  in  New  York,  was  to  secure  the  chapel  property 
to  the  Methodists  forever,  by  a  deed  similar  to  that  in  use  in 
the  British  societies,  the  original  conveyance  having  vested 
the  title  in  eight  trustees  without  restrictions. 

Pilmoor  did  not  confine  his  ministry  to  the  chapel  walls. 
He  visited  Captain  Webb  at  his  home  m  Jamaica,  Long  Island, 
and  held  a  "refreshing"  meeting  there.  He  carried  the 
consolations  of  faith  to  the  jails  and  workhouses.  He  found 
hearers  in  West  Chester.  "A  particular  friend  took  him  in 
his  chaise"  to  Harlem,  May  3,  1770.  a  place  about  eight 
miles  from  the  city,  where  he  preached  "with  great  freedom 
of  soul."  He  preached  with  great  power  in  the  open  fields. 
In  his  letter  to  the  Conference  in  England,  1770,  he  reported 
about  one  hundred  in  society,  aside  from  probationers,  and 
regretted  that  lack  of  helpers  had  kept  him  and  his  colleague 
confined  to  the  cities.  He  put  in  a  plea  for  more  mission- 
aries, assuring  them  "  they  need  not  be  afraid  of  wanting  the 
comforts  of  life,  for  the  people  are  very  hospitable.  ...  If 
you  send  over,  we  shall  gladly  provide  for  them." 

The  winter  of  1 770-1  771  brought  many  converts  into  the 
society  in  New  York.  Pilmoor  had  introduced  some  of  the 
most  popular  features  of  the  YVesleyan  worship — the  love 
feast,  intercession,  and  watch  night — and  on  Saturday  even- 
ings he  held  a  young  men's  meeting  which  "  crowned  all  the 
rest."  The  young  people  were  "all  on  fire  for  God  and 
heaven,"  and  an  elderly  gentleman  who  witnessed  their  joy- 
ous demonstrations  declared  with  weeping  eyes  that  he  would 


50 


American  Methodism 


not  have  missed  the  exaltation  of  that  sight  for  £50.  '  I 
heartily  love  all  the  lovers  of  Jesus,"  Pilmoor  once  said; 
"and  in  token  of  his  sincerity  he  vowed,   after  supping  with 


ORAWN   BY  G.   WILLARD   BO-.TE  f  "u"   "  """»""" 

THE    PREACHERS'    HOUSE   IN    JOHN    STREET,    NEW  YORK. 
The  first  American  Methodist  parsonage. 

some  of  the  city  paupers,  that  he  found  more  satisfaction  in 
their  conversation  than  in  that  of  the  most  refined  and  polite 
citizens  who  are  strangers  to  God." 

In    February,    1 77 1 ,    Boardman    resumed    charge   in    New 


Progress  in  Philadelphia  51 

York,  but  the  gracious  work  went  on  and  thirty  were  added 
to  the  society  in  a  single  month.  In  May  the  two  mission- 
aries again  exchanged  places,  and  so  continued  to  do  at  inter- 
vals of  a  few  months  until  the  spring  of  1772,  when  rein- 
forcements from  abroad  enabled  them  to  range  more  widely. 

The  Philadelphia  society  prospered  under  the  watch-care 
of  the  two  missionaries.  Pilmoor  was  its  first  regular  preacher, 
as  Webb  was  its  founder.  He  found  in  the  city  Edward  Evans, 
one  of  Whitefield's  converts,  who  now  allied  himself  with  the 
Wesleyan  evangelists.  He  preached  in  Philadelphia  and 
vicinity  in  1770,  and  in  1771  became  pastor  of  a  church  in 
Greenwich  Township,  New  Jersey.  He  died  in  the  autumn 
of  1 77 1.  Pilmoor,  who  loved  him  and  preached  his  funeral 
sermon,  said,  "  As  he  lived  so  he  died,  full  of  faith  and  full  of 
obedient  love."  As  he  was  the  earliest  native  American  to 
begin  to  preach,  his  right  to  be  called  the  first  American 
Methodist  preacher  seems  to  be  secure,  though,  dying  before 
the  organization  of  the  Conference,  his  name  had  no  place  in 
our  history  until  Atkinson  rescued  it  from  oblivion,  and 
placed  it  beside  that  of  Richard  Owen  and  William  Watters. 

The  Wesleyan  pioneers  found  the  Methodist  society  in 
Philadelphia  poorly  housed.  The  meetings  were  held  in  rig- 
ging lofts,  carpenters'  shops,  and  even  in  "a  pothouse  in  Lox- 
ley's  Court."  But  Pilmoor's  congregations  soon  outgrew 
these  scant  accommodations.  On  his  first  vSabbath  in  the  city 
he  preached  in  the  afternoon  on  the  common,  "from  the 
stage  erected  for  the  horse  race,"  to  an  immense  throng  "  of 
genteel  persons,  who,"  he  says,  "behaved  with  the  utmost 
attention  while  I  declared  Christ  Jesus  the  Prophet,  Priest, 
and  King  of  his  people."  At  the  day's  end,  after  preaching 
twice  and  listening  to  "  a  profitable  sermon"  by  Rev.  Mr. 
Stringer,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  and  exhorting  the  so- 


52  American   Methodism 

ciety  "to  walk  worthy  of  their  high  calling-,"  he  wrote  :  "This 
was  the  first  Sabbath  I  spent  in  America,  and  it  was  truly  a 
delight.  My  soul  was  abundantly  blessed  in  preaching  the 
word  of  life  to  others,  and  seemed  perfectly  willing  to  sacri- 
fice everything  for  their  good." 

At  five  o'clock  the  next  morning  he  preached  again  to  a 
good  congregation,  though  the  croakers  had  thought  that 
early  preaching  "would  not  answer  in  America."  He  wrote 
to  Wesley  of  his  auspicious  entrance  upon  his  work  :  ' '  There 
seems  to  be  a  great  and  effectual  door  open  in  this  country, 
and  I  hope  many  souls  will  be  gathered  in."  He  continued 
preaching  twice  a  day,  generally,  besides  meeting  classes  and 
individual  inquirers.  Williams  and  Webb  passed  through 
the  city  and  lent  him  their  aid.  A  spirit  of  revival  broke 
out.  "  They  hear  as  for  their  lives,"  writes  the  preacher. 
Thus  before  the  first  month  wras  gone  it  became  evident  that 
the  society  must  have  a  new  and  larger  meeting-room.  Just 
then  the  shell  of  an  unfinished  church  was  sold  at  auction. 
It  had  cost  £2,000,  and  bankrupted  the  "Dutch  Presby- 
terians "  who  had  built  it.  It  was  knocked  down  to  a  scatter- 
brained youth  for  £700,  and  he  was  glad  to  sell  his  white 
elephant  to  the  Methodists  for  £50  less  than  he  had  bid  for 
it.      "Thus  the  Lord  provided  for  us,"  said  Pilmoor. 

On  Friday,  November  24,  1769,  probably  the  very  day  of 
the  purchase,  he  took  possession  of  the  church,  and  preached 
"  with  great  liberty  of  spirit  upon  that  noble  passage  of  Scrip- 
ture :  "Who  art  thou,  O  great  mountain?  before  Zerubbabel 
thou  shalt  become  a  plain  :  and  he  shall  bring  forth  the  head- 
stone thereof  with  shoutings,  crying,  Grace,  grace  unto  it." 
The  building  was  fifty-five  feet  by  eighty-five  feet,  and  was 
for  many  years  by  far  the  largest  Methodist  church  edifice  in 
America,      It  was  still  far  from  completion,  but  the  preacher 


Captain  Webb  Preaching  in  the  Sail-loft. 

Drawn  by  Thure  de  Thulstnip. 


The  Methodists  Acquire  St.   George's 


55 


wrote  in  his  Journal,  on  the  evening  of  his  first  sermon 
within  its  walls,  "  Peradventure  that  God  who  enabled  him 
[Zerubbabel]  to  finish  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  will,  by  his 
providence  and  blessing,  make  way  for  us  to  finish  the 
church  we  have  bought  and  set  apart  for  his  praise.-' 

The  possession  of  a  large  church  building' gave  such  prom- 
inence to  the  hitherto  obscure  society  that  the  preacher  felt 


FROM  THE  ENGRAVING  BY  J.   ROGERS. 

THE   OLD   STATE    HOUSE,    PHILADELPHIA, 
Pilmoor  preached  from  the  step-,  of  this  building,  afterward  celebrated  as  "  Independence  Hall." 

it  his  duty  to  read  publicly  to  his  congregation  a  statement 
of  their  "  faith  and  body  of  principles."  Of  the  eight  points 
the  most  important  was  the  second:  "That  it,  the  Metho- 
dist society,  was  at  first  and  is  still  intended  for  the  benefit 
of  all  those  of  every  denomination  who,  being  truly  convinced 
of  sin  and  the  danger  they  are  exposed  to,  earnestly  desire 
to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come." 

After  making  this  statement    Pilmoor   says-    "I   told  the 


S6  American  Methodism 

people  we  left  our  native  land  not  with  a  design  to  make 
divisions  among  them,  .  .  .  but  to  gather  together  in  one 
the  people  of  God  that  are  scattered  abroad  and  revive  spirit- 
ual religion.  This  is  our  one  point — Christ,  who  died  for  us, 
to  live  in  us  and  reign  over  us  in  all  things." 

In  this  first  winter  in  Philadelphia  Pilmoor  visited  and 
addressed  the  inmates  in  the  jails  and  benevolent  institutions, 
penetrated  into  the  surrounding  country  on  preaching  excur- 
sions, established  a  Friday  noon  prayer  service  called  ''  In- 
tercession," held  children's  meetings,  and  inaugurated,  on 
March  23,  1770,  the  first  American  love  feast,  when  "the 
people  behaved  with  as  much  piety  and  decorum  as  if  they 
had  been  for  many  years  acquainted  with  the  economy  of  the 
Methodists."  He  had  now  been  five  months  in  America. 
The  society  in  his  care  had  nearly  doubled  its  membership, 
it  had  bought  and  partially  paid  for  a  spacious  house,  and  the 
city  and  the  country  around  had  heard  the  Gospel  faithfully 
proclaimed. 

Webb,  Williams,  and  Strawbridge  were  Pilmoor's  occa- 
sional visitors  and  welcome  helpers  in  this  first  winter,  and 
in  midsummer  of  1770,  when  Pilmoor  had  returned  to  his 
beloved  flock  after  four  months  in  New  York,  he  received  a 
fresh  proffer  of  help.  John  King,  a  young  man  from  the  old 
country,  called,  and  asked  to  be  assigned  work  as  a  preacher. 
He  claimed  to  have  seen  service  among  the  Methodists  in 
England,  but  as  he  brought  no  credentials  the  wary  pastor 
declined  to  employ  him.  Whereupon  the  young  man  took 
the  matter  in  his  own  hands,  advertised  that  he  would  preach 
on  Sunday  in  the  Potter's  Field,  and  did  so  to  a  great  multi- 
tude. His  zeal  and  simplicity  secured  him  a  license.  "Though 
he  is  by  no  means  fit  for  the  city,  he  is  well  qualified  to  do 
good  in  the  country,"  wrote  Pilmoor  after  hearing  his  proba- 


John  King,  the  Screamer 


57 


tionary  sermon  in  St.  George's.  The  young;  preacher  went 
into  Delaware  with  his  message,  and  thence  into  Maryland, 
where,  as  some  say,  he  preached  the  first  Methodist  sermon 
in  Baltimore.  One  tradition  has  it  that  his  pulpit  was  a 
blacksmith's  block  at  the  corner  of  French  and  Front  Streets. 


DRAWN    BY  P.   E.   F\JNTOFF.  F*°M   A   WOODCUT. 

ST.   GEORGE'S   METHODIST   EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,   PHILADELPHIA. 
The  oldest  Methodist  church  building  in  the  New  World. 

He  is  said  to  have  been  invited  once,  and  once  only,  to  the 
pulpit  of  St.  Paul's,  "  where,"  says  one  of  his  hearers,  "  he 
made  the  dust  fly  from  the  old  red  velvet  cushions."  He  was 
for  eisfht  years  a  useful  itinerant.  The  necessities  of  a  de- 
pendent  family  forced  him  to  locate  about  1778.  He  lived 
in  Xorth  Carolina  and  practiced  medicine,  which  profession 
he  had  studied  abroad.  He  died  at  Newberne,  in  1794.  hav- 
ing: "continued  to  the  end  an  earnest,  fearless,  and  faithful 
preacher  of  the  Gospel." 

It  was  to  the  stentorian  John  King  that  Wesley  addressed 
the  letter  so  characteristic  of  Ids  parental  tone  toward  his 
helpers:    ".Scream  no  more,  at  the  peril  of  your  soul.      God 


58  American  Methodism 

now  warns  you  by  me,  whom  he  has  set  over  you.  Speak  as 
earnestly  as  you  can,  but  clo  not  scream.  Speak  with  all  your 
heart,  but  with  a  moderate  voice.  It  was  said  of  our  Lord, 
'  He  shall  not  cry ;  '  the  word  properly  means,  he  shall  not 
scream.  Herein  be  a  follower  of  me  as  I  am  of  Christ.  I 
often  speak  loud,  often  vehemently,  but  I  never  scream.  I 
never  strain  myself ;  I  dare  not ;  I  know  it  would  be  a  sin 
against  God  and  my  own  soul."  The  latter  part  of  the  epistle 
is  interesting  in  the  light  of  King's  rejection  of  Pilmoor's 
authority : 

"O  John,  pray  for  an  advisable  and  teachable  temper. 
By  nature  you  are  very  far  from  it;  you  are  stubborn  and 
headstrong.  Your  last  letter  was  written  in  a  very  wrong 
spirit.  If  you  cannot  take  advice  from  others,  surely  you 
might  take  it  from 

"  Your  affectionate  brother, 

"  John  Weslev." 


CHAPTER  VI 


Pioneering' 

New  Jersey  and  Delaware.— First  Societies  in  Baltimore.— Work 
and  Workers  in  Virginia.— Pi lmoor's  Southern  Excursion.— 
Devereux  Jarratt. — A  Friendly  Clergyman. 

THE  missionaries  who  disembarked  at  "New  York  or 
Philadelphia  "must  needs  go  through"  New  Jersey, 
and  that  vState  early  and  frequently  enjoyed  their 
ministrations.  Webb  was  probably  the  first  to  preach  Metho- 
dist doctrine  there,  on  his  way  from  New  York  to  the  Quaker 
city.  Boardman  found  an  audience  at  Trenton  on  his  first 
journey  to  New  York,  in  1769.  The  next  year  Pilmoor 
makes  note  of  preaching  at  Birdington  (Bordentown)  and 
Burlington,  at  Gloucester  and  Trenton.  Webb  formed  a 
society  in  Burlington  in  December,  1770,  with  Joseph  Toy 
as  its  leader.  Toy  soon  remo\Ted  to  Trenton,  and  led  a 
class  there ;  he  was  afterward  a  successful  itinerant  preacher. 
About  the  same  time  Edward  Evans,  the  Methodist,  went  to 
minister  to  the  society  in  Greenwich  Chapel,  near  Clarksboro, 
New  Jersev.      These  were  the  besrinnines. 

That  knight-errant  of  the  Gospel,  Webb,  was  the  Methodist 
pioneer  also  in  Delaware.     In  November,  1769,   he  came  to 

Philadelphia  from   the  neighborhood  of  Wilmington  with  a 

59 


60 


American  Methodism 


glowing  report  of  successful  endeavors.  A  year  later  young 
John  King  went  thither  from  Philadelphia,  and  "God  made 
him  the  instrument  of  abundance  of  good  to  the  country  peo- 
ple." Pilmoor  visited  Wilmington,  Newark,  and  New  Castle 
in  April,  1771,  and  a  year  later  Asbury,  from  his  station  in 
Philadelphia,  traversed  some  of  the  same  ground.      Societies 


oGM   AN   OLD   P^ 


BROOKLYN    FERRY    HOUSE   AND    BOA1S,    1746. 

began  to  be  formed,  and  the  foundation  of  the  splendid  Dela- 
ware and  peninsula  Methodism  of  modern  times  was  laid. 

On  June  21,  1772,  Pilmoor  founded  the  first  Methodist  so- 
ciety in  Baltimore.  Strawbridge,  Williams,  and  King  had 
preached  there,  but  not  until  this  visit  of  the  Wesleyan  mis- 
sionary did  Methodism  effect  a  permanent  "lodgment  in  the 
city  which  has  since  figured  so  prominently  in  our  denomina- 
tional and  national  history.  His  first  sermon  in  the  place 
was  in  the  German  church,  on  June  1 1,  1772,  to  a  little  com- 
pany, from  the  words,  "So  run  that  ye  may  obtain."  He 
continued  for  eleven  days,  preaching  "on  a  pleasant  green 
near  the  Episcopal  church,"  also  in  the  German  and  Episcopal 


/ 


vr^rjr^,-^  r^-^J  *<~  /a 


yy 


.... ,  aA 


,  t  Y^n-s,  * 


i  <& 


.; 


"3    ^    *   -^- 


r  c    ,  ^     <^»  ..-£<-.' 


/t-7'-c-^-    'ssi. 


/>■<:■%[/    i**£-*v*.+2****a'   ~Z*   S?Z.y    .<*  *£  ss  ? * JCs     siy^e*^   syyL*^_ 


St-^yf-' 


c    &  A 


7 


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J       *-,>£*  tP-^^  ->**     &-ts>*,~rf~*^. 


.^S-Ztrz*? 


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S?  *■  ~/-*i.4      /*-*rA-z,r 


,  ^      ^     AS?       £~      2 


PMCTOGHAPMED    FROM    THE    ORIGINAL    MANUSCR^-T. 

A    PAGE    FROM    JOSEPH    PILMOOR'S   JOURNAL. 
From  ihe  original  manuscript.     By  the  courtesy  of  The  Historical  Society  of  the  Philadelphia  Conferenc 


The  First  Society  in  Baltimore 


63 


ORAAN    BY    F      E      FL 


churches,  and  "under  a  fine  shady  tree"'  at  "a  place-  about  a 
mile  from  the  town,  called  the  Point."  Many  attended,  and 
on  June  22  he  met  "a  few  serious  persons  in  the  German 
church,  and  proposed  to  form  a  society.  Some  of  them 
resolved  to  give  up 
themselves  to  the 
Lord,  so  I  joined 
them  together."  The 
s  a  m  e  n  i  g  h  t  h  e 
preached  at  the  Point 
and  organized  another 
society,  with  twenty- 
live  members  and  the 
promise  of  many 
more.  "There  is 
now,"  he  wrote  a  few 
weeks  later,  "an 
open  door  in  this 
town,  and  nothing  is 
wanted  but  a  good,  zealous  preacher,  for  the  people  are  well 
affected  to  the  cause  of  God,  and  wish  us  prosperity  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord.  My  heart  is  much  united  with  them,  and 
I  would  like  to  continue  longer  in  these  parts,  but  the  '  tu- 
telary cloud'  moves  southward,  and  I  am  compelled  to  go 
forward." 

At  Annapolis,  where  he  preached  under  "a  very  large  tree," 
he  took  boat  for  Virginia,  and  on  July  1 7  was  in  Norfolk 
preaching  to  a  few  people  in  the  theater.  Methodist  preach- 
ing was  not  a  prime  novelty  in  that  southern  seaport,  for 
Robert  Williams,  who  had  landed  there  in  1769,  had  revisited 
the  place  in  the  spring  of  this  very  year,  and  sang  and  preached 
from  the  courthouse  steps  to  a  laughing  and  guying  throng. 


THE   GERMAX    CHURCH,    BALTIMORE. 

Where  Asbury's  friend,  Rev.  Philip  Otterbein,  ministered,  and 

where  Pilmoor  "joined  together"  the  first  Methodist 

class  m  Baltimore,  June  22,  1772. 


64  American   Methodism 

They  took  Williams's  loud  cries 'and  fervent  prayers  for  the 
ravings  of  a  lunatic,  and  thought  he  was  swearing  profanely 
when  he  besought  them  in  God's  name  to  repent  lest  they 
should  die  in  their  sins  and  be  damned  and  go  to  hell.  Such 
expressions  were  so  strange  to  Norfolk  ears !  Yet  he  soon 
gained  a  respectful  hearing,  and  on  his  next  northern  visit 
stirred  the  hearts  of  the  missionaries  with  his  account  of  what 
the  Lord  was  doing  in  Virginia. 

It  was  four  months  after  Pilmoor's  advent  in  Virginia  that 
the  first  societies  in  that  province  were  gathered.  Meanwhile 
he  had  preached  in  Norfolk  and  "over  the  water"  in  Ports- 
mouth ;  in  the  state  house  yard  and  in  the  playhouse  at 
Williamsburg,  then  the  provincial  capital ;  he  also  preached 
in  the  tavern  dining  room  at  Yorktown,  where  some  young 
collegians  tempted  him  with  rationalistic  questions,  and  in 
another  inn  at  Hampton,  though  so  shaken  with  ague  that  he 
could  scarcely  hold  up  his  head.  He  even  ventured  into  the 
border  of  North  Carolina,  where  the  poor  and  ignorant  people 
heard  his  message  gratefully  and  a  good  planter  showed  him 
hospitality.  On  November  14  he  read  and  explained  the 
Rules  in  Portsmouth,  and  found  twenty-seven  willing  to  as- 
sent to  them.  This  was  the  pioneer  Methodist  society  in  the 
Old  Dominion.  'Two  days  afterward  twenty-six  others  were 
united  in  a  second  society  in  Norfolk.  "  I  have  long  wept 
and  prayed  that  God  would  raise  up  a  people  in  this  place,'* 
he  said,  "and  now  my  prayer  is  answered,  and  I  clap  my 
hands  exultingly  in  hallelujahs  to  the  Lord  the  King." 

Two  days  afterward  Williams  arrived  in  Norfolk,  bringing 
with  him  the  Maryland  youth,  William  Watters,  who  was 
being  broken  to  the  itinerant  harness. 

Watters  was  the  first  native  American  member  of  a  Con- 
ference, and,  excepting  the  brief   career  of   Edward   Evans, 


The   First   Native   Itinerant 


65 


was  the  fust  native  American  Methodist  itinerant.  lie  was 
the  sun  of  a  vestryman  in  Baltimore  County,  Maryland,  and 
was  in  his  eighteenth  year  when  the  Methodist  preachers 
came  into  his  neighborhood,   puzzling  young  and  old  with 


DflA*N     6*     P     6.     FUNTOFF 


FROM   THE    WOOOCUT   IN    HOWE'S   HISTORICAL   COLLECTIONS. 


THE  OLD   CAPITOL,    WILLIAMSBURG,  V.V., 

Where  Jcseph  Pilmoor  Preached  in   1772. 

their  doctrine  of  the  "  new  birth."  Many  were  awakened, 
this  youth  among  them.  In  May,  i  77 1 ,  at  midday,  several 
good  people  met  to  pray  that  he  might  be  converted.  As 
they  sang, 

Give  to  the  winds  thy  fears; 

Hope  and  be  undismayed  ; 
God  hears  thy  sighs  and  counts  thy  tears, 

God  shall  lift  up  thy  head, 

tears  flowed  from  his  eyes,  and  he  says :  "  I  felt  a  lively  hope 
that  the  Lord  whom  I  sought  would  suddenly  come  to  his 
temple.  ...  A  divine  light  beamed  through  my  inmost  soul 
and  in  a  few  minutes  encircled  me  round,  surpassing  the 
brightness  of  the  sun.  .  .  .  My  burden  was  gone,  my  sorrow 
fled,  my  soul  and  all  that  was  within  me  rejoiced  in  hope  of  the 
glory  of  God,  while  I  beheld  such  a  fullness  and  willingness 
in  the  Lord  Jesus  to  save  lost  sinners,  and  my  soul  so  rested 
in  him,  that  I  could  now  for  the  first  time  call  Jesus  Christ 


66  American  Methodism 

Lord  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  hymn  being  concluded,  we 
all  fell  upon  our  knees,  but  my  prayers  were  turned  into 
praises.  A  supernatural  power  penetrated  every  faculty  of 
my  mind  and  body.  ...  In  the  same  house  where  I  was 
born  a  child  of  wrath  I  was  born  a  child  of  grace." 

The  young  convert  counted  his  admission  to  the  society  "a 
greater  blessing  than  to  be  made  a  prince,"  and  at  once  be- 
gan to  tell  others  of  the  peace  that  had  come  to  his  soul.  In 
October,  1772,  "being  fully  persuaded  of  his  call  to  the  min- 
istry, and  that  it  was  his  duty  to  go  wherever  a  kind  Provi- 
dence should  point  the  way,"  he  cheerfully  accepted  Williams's 
invitation  to  accompany  him  on  his  preaching  trip  through 
Virginia  to  Norfolk.  In  all  the  three  hundred  miles  they 
met  very  few  who  knew  experimentally  anything  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  even  Pilmoor's  Methodists  in  Norfolk  seemed 
cold  and  dull  in  comparison  with  Strawbridge's  shouting  con- 
verts in  Maryland. 

In  December,  1772,  Pilmoor  left  Williams  and  his  young 
helper  to  care  for  the  work  in  southeastern  Virginia,  and  set 
off  with  horse  and  chaise  and  provender  and  provisions  on  an 
extended  southern  journey.  At  Newberne,  N.  C,  where 
he  spent  the  Christmas  holidays,  he  was  hospitably  enter- 
tained. At  Wilmington  the  innkeeper  would  take  no  com- 
pensation. South  of  Brunswick  his  troubles  began.  One  day 
his  chaise  broke  down.  The  next  he  durst  not  ride  for  fear  his 
horse  should  break  his  legs  between  the  logs  of  the  corduroy 
road.  After  dark,  January  18,  1773,  the  fagged-out  brute 
drew  the  rickety  chaise  into  Charleston  and  a  negro  boy 
piloted  the  preacher  to  the  friendly  door  of  Crosse's  tavern. 
On  the  evening  of  the  2 2d  he  preached  in  the  general  Baptist 
church  to  a  company  "not  large,  but  very  serious."  After 
a  fortnight's  sojourn   in   the  metropolis  of  South  Carolina, 


Pilmoor's   Southern  Excursion  67 

preaching  almost  daily,  he  pushed  five  days'  march  further, 
into  Savannah,  then  a  busy  trading  town  of  about  three 
thousand  inhabitants.  Here  on  Sunday,  February  y,  he 
preached  in  the  Lutheran  church,  on  Wednesday  he  visited 
Whitefield's  Orphanage,  ten  miles  from  the  city,  and  on  the 
following  Monday  he  again  turned  his  face  northward.  He 
retraced  his  own  route  and  was  well  received  all  along  the 
line,  the  pulpits  of  many  churches,  Episcopalian,  German, 
Baptist,  and  Independent,  being  opened  to  him.  After  nearly 
losing  his  life  in  the  fords  and  the  ferries  he  rode  into  Nor- 
folk on  April  6.  Great  was  the  rejoicing  over  his  safe  return. 
"  They  treat  me,"  he  says,  "  as  if  I  were  an  angel  of  God." 

When  he  was  back  in  Philadelphia,  after  his  long  absence, 
he  thus  reviewed  its  experience:  "  It  is  above  a  year  since  I 
left  this  city.  I  set  out  with  a  consciousness  of  duty,  and 
was  determined  to  obey  what  to  me  was  a  call  from  above. 
I  was  totally  unacquainted  with  the  people,  the  road,  and 
everything  else.  I  only  knew  that  there  were  multitudes  of 
souls  scattered  through  a  vast  extent  of  country,  and  was 
willing  to  encounter  any  difficulty  and  undergo  the  greatest 
hardships  so  I  might  win  them  to  Christ.  My  plan  was  to 
follow  the  leadings  of  Providence  and  go  wherever  the  '  tute- 
lary cloud  '  should  direct.  With  this  view  I  turned  my  face 
to  the  south,  and  went  above  a  thousand  miles  through 
the  provinces,  visiting  most  of  the  towns  between  Philadel- 
phia and  Savannah,  where  I  preached  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
At-  Savannah  I  had  several  invitations  to  go  forward  into 
Florida,  but  my  mind  was  so  strangely  drawn  toward  the 
people  where  I  had  already  been,  who  entreated  me  .  .'  .  to 
visit  them  again,  that  I  resolved  to  comply  with  their  request 
and  venture  through  the  country  again.  I  found  to  my  great 
satisfaction  that  I  had  not  labored  in  vain.      I  have  been  in 


68  American  Methodism 

many  dangers  by  land  and  by  water.  My  difficulties  in  pass- 
ing through  so  many  provinces  without  a  guide  have  been 
very  considerable  and  often  discouraging.  I  can  say  with 
the  utmost  confidence  I  have  done  it  with  all  sincerity  and 
uprightness  of  heart,  and,  blessed  be  God,  I  have  not  labored 


FNOM     AN     OLD     i  OOOCUT. 

CHRIST   CHURCH,    PHILADELPHIA. 
In  this  Anglican  church  the  earlier  Wesleyan  missionaries  worshiped  and  received  the  sacraments. 

in  vain.      His  presence  was  with  me.     His  word  ran  and  was 
glorified,  and  sinners  were  savingly  converted  to  God." 

It  was  during  Pilmoor's  absence  in  the  south  that  Williams 
made  his  great  stroke  for  the  cause  of  Christ.  Several 
religious  young  men  invited  him  to  Petersburg,  and  after 
preaching  in  the  theater  there  he  began  to  go  out  into  the 
neighboring  country.  Here,  in  March,  1773,  he  met  the 
Rev.  Devereux  Jarratt,  rector  of  Bath,  whose  earnest  evan- 


Father  Jarratt's   Cooperation  69 

gelical  preaching  had  resulted  in  revivals,  and  who  had 
formed  his  converts  into  societies  resembling  those  of  Wesley. 
The  zealous  rector  was  impressed  by  the  "plain,  simple- 
hearted  character"  of  Williams,  from  whom  he  learned  "that 
the  Methodists  were  true  members  of  the  Church  of  England  ; 
that  their  design  was  to  build  up  and  not  divide  the  Church; 
that  the  preachers  did  not  assume  the  office  of  priests,  ad- 
ministered neither  the  ordinance  of  baptism  nor  the  Lord's 
Supper,  but  looked  to  the  parish  ministers  in  all  places  for 
these;  that  they  traveled  to  call  sinners  to  repentance,  to 
join  proper  subjects  in  soeiety  for  mutual  edification,  and 
to  do  all  they  could  for  the  spiritual  edification  of  these 
societies." 

By  these  conversations  and  by  the  Methodist  books  which 
he  carried  Williams  won  the  powerful  support  of  the  rector, 
who,  in  turn,  exerted  himself  to  form  societies  in  southern 
Virginia  and  the  border  of  North  Carolina,  which  ultimately 
became  a  veritable  nursery  of  Methodism.  Jarratt  was  for 
many  years  the  beneficent  patron  of  the  itinerant  preachers, 
an  honored  figure  at  their  quarterly  meetings,  and  his  friend- 
ship was  enjoyed  and  prized  by  Asbury 


CHAPTER  VII 

"I  Seek  a  Circulation  of  the  Preachers  ** 

Will  Wesley  Come  Out? — Dissatisfaction. — Francis  Asbury  Be- 
comes Mr.  Wesley's  American  Lieutenant.— The  Youth  and  the 
Man.— The  Voyage. — System  and  Order.— "  Preaching  the  Peo- 
ple Away." 

FROM  the  fall  of  1769,  when  the  pioneer  Wesleyan  mis- 
sionary preachers  landed  in  America,  to  the  autumn 
of  1 77 1,  when  their  two  brethren  disembarked,  Metho- 
dism in  the  colonies  had  enjoyed  two  years  of  progress. 
There  were  as  yet  no  Conferences,  and  the  total  membership 
was  a  little  over  three  hundred.  Embury,  Strawbridge,  and 
Webb  were  still  busy ;  King  and  Williams  had  thrust  their 
sickles  into  a  field  white  with  the  harvest,  and  Boardman 
and  Pilmoor,  the  accredited  representatives  of  Wesley,  had 
labored  faithfully  with  the  New  York  and  Philadelphia  so- 
cieties, besides  making  sallies  into  the  country.  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  Maryland  had 
been  entered.  But  there  was  as  yet  no  attempt  to  extend 
Methodism  upon  that  aggressive  and  systematic  plan  which 
has  been  a  leading  factor  in  the  success  of  the  denomination. 
The  initiative  and  executive  powers  of  Boardman,  who  was 
nominally  the  head  of  the  work  in  America,  were  not  equal 

to  such  an  undertaking. 

70 


Will  Wesley  Come  Out? 


71 


The  man  who  was  to  direct  the  successful  campaign  was 
still  in  the  itinerant  harness  in  England — Francis  Asbury. 
Wesley's  heart  was  still  yearning  for  the  welfare  of  America. 
His  thoughts  were  often  upon  the  mission  there,  and  upon 
the  two  young  men  whose  shoulders  bore  its  burden.  Al- 
though nearing  his  threescore  years  and  ten,  he  was  strongly 
tempted  to   follow   his   inclinations  and  visit  the  American 


r*M 


X 


' 


DRAWN    By  G.   WILLARD   BONTE. 


FROM     A    VtOODCUT. 


THE  REPUTED  BIRTHPLACE   OF    FRANCIS  ASBURY. 

colonies.  His  friend  Whitefield  had  just  crossed  the  ocean 
for  the  thirteenth  time,  and  was  ranging  from  his  orphanage 
in  Savannah  to  New  Hampshire,  preaching  almost  daily  up 
to  the  hour  of  his  sudden  death,  on  September  30,  1770.  To 
him,  on  February  21,1 770,  John  Wesley  wrote  :  ' '  Who  knows 
but  before  your  return  ...  I  may  pay  another  visit  to  the 
New  World  ?  I  have  been  strongly  solicited  by  several  of  our 
friends  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  They  urge  many 
reasons,  some  of  which  appear  to  be  of  considerable  weight ; 


72  American  Methodism 

and  my  age  [sixty-seven]  is  no  objection  at  all ;  for  I  bless 
God  my  health  is  not  barely  as  good  but  abundantly  better 
in  several  respects  than  when  I  was  five-and-twenty.  But 
there  are  so  many  reasons  on  the  other  side  that  as  yet  I  can 
determine  nothing ;  so  I  must  wait  for  further  light.  .  .  . 
For  the  present  I  must  beg  of  you  to  supply  my  lackof  serv- 
ice by  encouraging  our  preachers  as  you  judge  best ;  who  are 
as  yet  comparatively  young  and  inexperienced." 

Some  of  his  "reasons  on  the  other  side"  we  know.  He 
was  the  sole  and  unsupported  executive  head  of  the  work  in 
the  three  kingdoms  and  had  no  lieutenant  competent  to  fill 
his  place.  He  said,  "If  I  go  to  America,  I  must  do  a  thing 
which  I  hate  as  bad  as  I  hate  the  devil — I  must  keep  a 
secret!"  For  if  the  home  societies  were  aware  of  his  inten- 
tion, they  would  certainly  have  protested  loudly.  This  was 
the  time,  also,  of  the  acrimonious  controversy  between  him 
and  Toplady,  and  a  period  of  great  domestic  disquiet. 

In  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference  of  1770  "America" 
appears  for  the  first  time — as  a  single  circuit,  served  by  four 
preachers,  Pilmoor,  Boardman.King,  and  Williams.  America 
reported  a  total  membership  of  three  hundred  and  sixteen  to 
the  Conference  of  1771.  With  the  report  came  the  urgent 
appeals  of  the  Americans  for  more  helpers.  The  Conference 
of  that  year  was  agitated  with  the  Calvinistic  controversy 
which  ultimately  caused  the  secession  of  an  influential  party 
in  the  connection.  But  the  Americans  were  not  neglected. 
Five  preachers  offered  to  go,  and  two  were  accepted. 

The  two  volunteers  for  America  from  the  Conference  of 
1 77 1  were  Francis  Asbury  and  Richard  Wright.  Of  the  lat- 
ter's  previous  career  in  the  itinerancy  little  is  known,  and  his 
term  of  service  in  America  was  brief  and  uneventful.  But 
to  his  colleague,  more   than  to  any  other  of  its  preachers, 


The  Button  Maker's   Apprentice 


73 


American  Methodism  owes  its  form,  its  spirit,  and  its  vast 
achievement. 

The  elder  Asburys  were  well-to-do  people  in  the  parish  of 
Handsworth,  in  Staffordshire.  The  son  was  born  "near  the 
foot  of  Hampstead  Bridge,  about  four  miles  from  Birmingham, 
August  20  or  21,  1795."     The  father,  a  farmer  and  gardener 


- 


-•nii^iil" 


QRAW^  BY  G.    WH.LARD   BONTE. 


CROM  A  WOODCUT. 


MANWOOD   COTTAGE,    HANDSWORTH,    STAFFORDSHIRE,   ENGLAND. 
In  which  Asbury  began  his  itinerant  ministry. 

for  two  wealthy  landowners,  was  in  easy  circumstances.  The 
mother  was  a  woman  of  intelligence,  of  a  singularly  tender 
and  loving  nature,  and  genuinely  pious.  Francis,  the  only 
son,  was  carefully  nurtured  in  the  religion  of  the  Established 
Church.  He  left  school  early,  having  "such  horrible  dread" 
of  the  master's  birch,  and  was  apprenticed  for  six  and  a  half 
years  to  a  button  maker.     While  yet  a  lad  he  heard  Wesley's 


74  American   Methodism 

preachers,  and  was  convinced  that  their  way,  though  strange, 
was  best  for  him.  Beginning  very  humbly,  and  speaking  in 
his  father's  house,  he  became  a  local  preacher  at  the  age  of 
seventeen.  Five  years'  apprenticeship  at  this  work  qualified 
him  for  the  itinerancy,  and  at  the  close  of  his  fifth  year  as  a 
traveling  preacher  he  volunteered,  and  was  accepted,  to  re- 
inforce the  little  band  of  pioneers  in  the  New  World. 

Wesley's  keen  eye  for  character  discerned  in  his  young 
helper  the  germs  of  these  qualities  which  were  to  be  of  such 
conspicuous  service  to  the  cause  and  he  designated  him  for 
the  leadership,  young  though  he  was;  probably  the  junior  of 
the  six  English  preachers  in  America. 

Bidding  farewell  to  his  affectionate  mother,  to  whose  sup- 
port in  her  protracted  widowhood  he  was  to  contribute  for 
many  years  out  of  his  scanty  salary,  Asbury  repaired  to  Bris- 
tol, with  little  baggage  and  less  gold,  to  meet  Wright  and  set 
sail  with  him.  The  hospitable  Methodists  of  Bristol  were  true 
to  their  reputation  in  fitting  out  the  two  missionaries.  Asbury 
kept  a  journal  of  the  voyage.  He  prayed  much,  read  his 
Bible  much,  meditated  much,  and  preached  frequently  stand- 
ing on  the  deck  with  his  back  against  the  swaying  mast. 
These  sentences  which  he  wrote  on  shipboard  open  the  earn- 
est man's  soul  to  our  vision  : 

"Whither  am  I  going? 

"  To  the  New  World. 

"What  to  do?     To  gain  honor? 

"  No,  if  I  know  my  own  heart. 

"  To  get  money? 

' '  No,  I  am  going  to  live  to  God,  and  bring  others  so  to  do." 

After  a  voyage  of  fifty  days  the  ship  passed  up  the  Dela- 
ware and  the  two  missionaries  reached  Philadelphia  on  Oc- 
tober 27,  1 77 1,  where  Pilmoor  and  the  little  society  greeted 


Asbury  and  Wright  in  America 


75 


them  with  great  cordiality.  "  The  people  looked  on  us  with 
pleasure,"  wrote  Asbury,  "  bidding-  us  welcome  with  fervent 
affection,  and  receiving  us  as  angels  of  God."  They  preached 
in  the  large  church  there,  and  after  a  few  days  separated  for 


MRS.   ELIZABETH    ASBURY. 
The  mother  of  the  pioneer  b^hop. 


their  respective  fields,  Wright  going  down  into  the  Eastern 
Shore  of  Maryland  to  Bohemia  Manor,  where  Whitefield  had 
been  a  welcome  guest,  and  Asbury  going  to  New  York.      "I 


76  American  Methodism 

trust  he  will  be  a  special  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God, 
turning  many  to  righteousness,"  wrote  Pilmoor  after  seeing 
him  safely  on  his  way.  On  his  way  through  the  Jerseys 
he  stopped  to  preach  in  the  courthouse  at  Burlington,  and, 
turning  aside  to  Staten  Island,  spent  the  Sabbath  with 
Peter  Van  Pelt,  in  whose  house  he  preached  thrice  on  that 
day.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  work  on  that  island  which 
soon  warranted  the  organization  of  a  class  and  has  ever  since 
flourished  abundantly. 

On  Monday,  November  1 1,  1 77 1 ,  Asbury  came  up  the  bay 
from  Staten  Island  and  landed  in  New  York.  Boardman 
welcomed  him  as  a  brother,  and  the  next  day  the  young  itin- 
erant preached  in  the  Wesley  Chapel,  John  Street,  from  the 
text,  ' '  I  am  determined  to  know  nothing  among  you  save 
Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified."  He  noted  with  emotion  the 
effect  of  his  words  upon  the  audience,  and  especially  upon 
the  negroes,  who  from  the  first  seem  to  have  been  drawn  to 
the  Methodist  meetings  in  New  York.  Of  the  people  in  gen- 
eral Asbury  wrote,  "I  think  the  Americans  are  more  ready 
to  receive  the  word  than  the  English." 

Yet  he  perceived  a  disposition  in  the  preachers  to  confine 
their  activities  to  the  vicinity  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
which  already  had  considerable  congregations  comfortably 
housed,  and  not  to  push  out  into  the  back  country,  where  the 
most  crying  need  for  spiritual  religion  existed.  This  tendency 
to  "  settle,"  instead  of  being  aggressive  traveling  evangelists, 
he  resolved  to  combat  with  all  his  might.  "  I  am  fixed  to 
the  Methodist  plan,"  he  writes;  and  again,  "  I  have  not  yet 
the  thing  which  I  seek — a  circulation  of  preachers,  to  avoid 
partiality  and  popularity."  And  though  there  were  many 
obstacles  and  temptations  from  which  he  was  not  exempt — 
for  many  a  congregation  would  have  been  glad  to  have  him  for 


Asbury  in   New  York  77 

its  settled  pastor — his  indomitable  perseverance  on  this  point 
established  the  itinerant  plan,  which  kept  the  preachers  even 
with  the  advancing  tide  of  migration,  and,  under  God,  con- 
tributed largely  to  save  the  newly  opened  continent  for  Christ. 


ENGRAVED   BY  J     C-    EUTTRE. 

MRS.    ANN    DOTY    DISOSWAY. 

Wife  nf  Israel  Disosway,  Fsq.,  a  member  of  the  first  Methodist 
society  on  Staten  Island,  and  for  many  years  a  leading 
Methodist  woman  of  New  York  and  \  icinity. 

The  cold  of  a  northern  winter  did  not  benumb  Asbury's 
spirit.  The  thought  of  two  preachers  being  in  one  town  to- 
gether greatly  distnrbed  him.  His  activity  in  that  first  bitter 
season  was  an  earnest  of  his  future  labors.     The  little  fire 


78  American  Methodism 

started  on  Staten  Island  was  diligently  fed,  several  families 
opening  their  houses  to  preaching  and  their  hearts  to  the 
word.  The  towns  of  Westchester  County,  just  above  New 
York — West  Farms,  Mamaroneck,  Rye,  East  Chester,  New 
Rochelle,  to  which  Pilmoor  had  penetrated — were  now  reached 
with  some  regularity.  The  red  mud  of  the  Jersey  roads  had 
not  settled  in  the  spring  of  1772  when  Asbury  accomplished 
the  hard  journey  to  Philadelphia,  preaching  en  route,  as  was 
his  custom,  wherever  the  hearing  ear  was  offered.  His  ex- 
ample or  his  urgent  exhortation — for  he  can  hardly  yet  have 
commanded  the  men  who  were  his  seniors  in  years  and  in 
the  work — aroused  his  colleagues.  Boardman  seems  to  have 
planned  the  work  for  the  first  half  of  1772  on  a  large  and 
systematic  scale.  He  himself  was  to  enter  New  England, 
and  we  know  that  he  did  reach  Providence,  and  probably 
Boston  ;  Pilmoor  was  to  attack  the  South  ;  Wright  was  to  go 
to  New  York,  and  Asbury  to  remain  in  Philadelphia.  As- 
bury interpreted  his  instructions  very  broadly.  Without 
neglecting  his  charge  he  crossed  the  Delaware  into  New 
Jersey  and  founded  a  wide  circuit  of  preaching  places  to  be 
served  by  the  preacher  of  Philadelphia.  "  I  hope,"  he  says, 
' '  that  before  long  about  seven  preachers  of  us  will  spread 
over  seven  hundred  or  eight  hundred  miles."  He  certainly 
covered  his  share,  getting  out  into  Pennsylvania,  Delaware, 
and  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland  from  his  station  in  Phila- 
delphia. He  enforced  the  Rules  strictly,  and  offended  many 
by  excluding  them  from  the  society  meetings.  "While  I 
stay  the  Rules  must  be  attended  to,"  he  wrote;  "I  cannot 
suffer  myself  to  be  guided  by  half-hearted  Methodists."  In 
midsummer  Boardman  made  a  new  disposition  of  his  forces, 
by  which  Asbury  was  sent  back  to  New  York  while  he  him- 
self took  charge  at  Philadelphia. 


System  and  Order  79 

Asbury  found  fault  with  Wright,  his  predecessor  at  John 
Street,  in  1 77-2 ,  for  holding  his  love  feast  with  open  doors. 
He  undertook  to  set  the  affairs  of  the  society  in  better  order. 
Public  preaching  was  appointed  for  Tuesday,  Thursday,  and 
Friday  nights,  besides  the  Sunday  services  and  Saturday 
evening  exhortations;  the  early  morning  Sunday  service 
(5  A.  M.)  was  agreed  to;  in  spite  of  opposition  he  forced  the 
rule  to  exclude  the  public  from  meetings  of  the  society ;  it 
was  agreed  to  take  collections  weekly  and  quarterly;  the 
preacher  also  insisted  on  Sunday  night  being  the  best  time  to 
meet  the  society,  some  vainly  opposing ;  it  was  decided  that 
the  preacher  should  hold  children's  meetings,  and  the  matter 
of  "spreading  the  books"  was  talked  over,  but  not  deter- 
mined. 

Soon  afterward  Asbury  appointed  a  collector  and  imposed 
Wesley's  rigid  financial  system,  with  the  result  of  sending 
the  receipts  up  at  a  rapid  ratio — £73,  £87,  £116  in  successive 
periods  of  five  months  each. 

These  reforms  were  not  effected  without  friction.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  officiary  on  October  9,  1772,  Asbury's  Journal 

testifies  to  "sharp  debates"  and  personalities:    "Mr.  L 

[Lupton]  told  me  I  had  already  preached  the  people  away, 
and  intimated  that  the  whole  work  would  be  destroyed  by 
me." 

The  next  day  came  Wesley's  letter,  "  in  which  he  required 
a  strict  attention  to  discipline,"  and  promoted  the  young 
disciplinarian  to  be  "assistant" — that  is,  his  own  assistant; 
the  virtual  head  of  the  Methodist  societies  in  America. 


CHAPTER   VIII 
Rapid  Organization 

Asbupy  as  General  Assistant.— A  Quarterly  Meeting.— Chapel- 
building  in  Baltimore.— Webb  in  England.— Thomas  Rankin 
and  George  Shadforu. — A  New  Chief.— A  Conference  Called. 

GREAT  commanders  like  Wesley  do  not  lack  advices 
from  distant  parts  of  the  battlefield.  He  knew  the 
fiber  of  "  Franky"  Asbury,  as  he  called  him,  when 
he  sent  him  across  the  sea,  and  through  his  reports  and  the 
letters  of  others  he  kept  his  keen  eye  on  the  work  and  all  the 
workers  in  the  colonies.  In  the  autumn  of  1772  came  his 
dispatch  deposing  the  easygoing  Boardman,  and  conferring 
temporarily  the  superintendency  of  Methodism  on  the  Amer- 
ican continent  upon  Francis  Asbury,  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
seven,  uneducated  and  unordained.  Boardman  was  a  most 
amiable  soul,  and  acquiesced  in  the  change  without  a  mur- 
mur, though  Pilmoor  could  not  help  thinking  and  saying 
that  his  colleague  and  himself  had  been  misrepresented  to 
Wesley. 

In  October,  1772,  the  young  leader  set  out  from  New  York 
for  the  South,  preaching  as  he  went.  Passing  through  New 
Jersey  and  an  angle  of  Pennsylvania,  he  came  to  Mary- 
land, where  he  noted  great  changes  for  good,  "  notwithstand- 

80 


"  Some    Little    Irregularities."  81 

ing  the  weakness  of  the  instruments  and  sonic  little  irregular- 
ities."    The  weak  instruments  were,  of  course,  Strawbridge 

and  his  helpers,  and  the  chief  irregularity  was,  naturally, 
Strawbridge's  practice  of  administering  the  sacraments. 
"  Men  who  neither  feared  God  nor  regarded  man — swearers, 
liars,  cock-fighters,  card-players,  horse-racers,  drunkards,  etc. 
— are  now  so  changed  as  to  become  new  men,  and  are  filled 
with  the  praises  of  God." 

In  one  Maryland  household  Asbury  learned  that  a  young 
man  of  the  family  had  gone  into  Virginia  with  Williams, 
feeling  himself  called  to  preach.  This  was  William  Wat ters. 
Two  days  before  Christmas  Asbury  held  a  quarterly  meeting 
at  the  home  of  Joseph  Presbury,  in  Gunpowder  Neck,  and 
stationed  the  Maryland  preachers,  .Strawbridge,  Owen,  with 
King  in  Frederick  County  and  Webster  and  Rollins  across 
the  bay.  From  the  collections  the  sum  of  £8  was  apportioned 
to  Strawbridge,  the  family  man,  and  £6  to  King  and  Asbury, 
the  bachelors.  The  proceedings  are  summarized  in  Asbury's 
Journal  in  the  interrogatory  form  still  so  familiar  to  every- 
one who  reads  the  Minutes  of  our  Annual  Conferences. 

The  question  most  warmly  discussed  was,  "Will  the  people 
be  contented  without  our  administering  the  sacrament  ?  "  This 
was  the  first  outcry  of  the  sacramental  difficulty  which  became 
such  a  rock  of  offense  to  the  fathers.  In  England  the  Wes- 
leyan  societies  were  still  within  the  pale  of  the  Established 
Church.  Wesley  was  a  loyal  minister  of  that  Church.  His 
preachers  were  laymen,  and  so  far  as  he  could  control  them 
their  meetings  were  so  timed  as  not  to  conflict  with  attend- 
ance upon  the  services  in  the  parish  churches,  and  members 
of  society  were  admonished  to  receive  baptism  and  Commun- 
ion at  the  hands  of  the  parish  clergy.  This  was  often  dis- 
tasteful even  in  England,  where  many  of  the  clergy  were  men 


82  American  Methodism 

of  unspiritual  lives  and  tastes.  In  the  American  colonies, 
especially  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  where  the  Anglican 
clergy  were  openly  worldly,  and  even  vicious,  the  Methodists 
preferred  to  receive  the  Communion  from  those  humble 
preachers  who  had  broken  to  them  the  bread  of  life,  even 
though  apostolic  hands  had  not  been  laid  upon  their  heads. 
Strawbridge  had  no  patience  with  ecclesiastical  bonds,  and 
the  people  stood  by  him.  "I  told  them,"  said  Asbury,  who 
was  much  displeased  by  the  irregularity,  "  that  I  would  not 
agree  to  it  at  that  time,  and  insisted  on  our  abiding  by  our 
Rules.  But  Mr.  Boardman  had  given  them  their  way  at  a 
quarterly  meeting  held  here  before,  and  I  was  obliged  to 
connive  at  some  things  for  the  sake  of  peace."  After  passing 
the  character  of  the  preachers  the  little  band  "parted  in 
peace." 

On  January  3,  1773,  Asbury  preached  his  first  sermon  in 
Baltimore,  beginning  about  dawn  in  the  house  of  Captain 
Patten,  a  friendly  Irishman  at  "The  Point."  He  preached 
several  times  that  day  to  large  congregations,  and  before  he 
slept  had  "  settled  "  two  classes,  one  for  women  and  the  other 
for  men.  Other  dwellings  were  opened  for  preaching — 
William  Moore's,  at  the  northeast  corner  of  Water  and  South 
Streets,  and  Widow  Triplett's,  on  Baltimore  Street.  The 
interest  spread  so  rapidly  that  the  meetings  had  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  a  rigging  loft.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  Asbury, 
assisted  by  Jesse  Hollingsworth,  George  Wells,  Richard  Moale, 
George  Robinson,  and  John  Woodward,  purchased  a  plot  of 
ground  at  Fell's  Point  and  began  to  build  the  Strawberry 
Alley  Chapel,  a  brick  structure  forty-one  by  thirty  feet,  with 
a  gallery  for  colored  worshipers.  A  sounding  board  was  sus- 
pended over  the  pulpit,  as  if  to  extinguish  the  preacher,  and 
a  motto,  "  Thou  God  seest  me,"  in  gilt  letters  on  a  blue  field, 


A  Two   Hundred   Mile  Circuit 


83 


was  the  sole  mural  decoration.  Before  this  preach inghouse 
was  ready  a  second,  that  in  Lovely  Lane,  was  begun  and 
completed. 

Asbury  arranged  a  circuit  of  two  hundred  miles  and  twenty- 
four  appointments,  all  centering  in  Baltimore.  He  traveled 
it  with  several  efficient  local  helpers.  In  March  he  held  its 
quarterly  meeting  at  "  vSusquehanna."  Multitudes  attended. 
The  love  feast  was  thronged,  and  the  sermon  and  exhorta- 


DRAWH   BY   P.    E-    FUNTOFF. 

LOVELY    LANE    PREACHI NGHOUSE,   BALTIMORE. 
The  first  house  built  and  occupied  for  Methodist  preaching  in  Baltimore. 

tions  struck  many  to  the  heart.  "We  all  went  in  the 
strength  of  the  Lord  to  our  several  appointments,"  wrote 
Asbury  at  its  close. 

In  the  winter  of  1 771-1772  Webb,  tired  of  having  only 
young  preachers  sent  out  to  the  colonies,  went  to  England  to 
lay  the  case  before  Wesley,  and  to  obtain,  if  not  his  personal 
presence  in  America,  at  least  some  man  of  long  experience 
and  recognized  position.  Pilmoor  and  Boardman,  notwith- 
standing  their  unstinted  devotion    and   fruitful  labors,   had 


84  American   Methodism 

been  much  spoken  against  to  Wesley,  and  Asbury's  rigid  ad- 
ministration of  discipline  had  provoked  bitter  opposition. 
The  worthy  captain  thought  nothing  was  too  good  for  his 
own  people,  and  asked  for  Christopher  Hopper  and  Joseph 
Benson,  two  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  connection.  Though 
he  failed  to  secure  their  appointment,  he  was  introduced  to 
the  Conference  at  Leeds,  in  August,  1772,  and  was  allowed 
to  tell  the  brethren  in  his  characteristic  fashion,  all  fire 
and  all  tears,  of  the  thousands  of  precious  souls  perish- 
ing in  America  for  lack  of  knowledge.  To  George  Shadford 
and  Thomas  Rankin  his  impassioned  words  sounded  as  a  call 
from  above,  and,  following  the  example  of  Boardman  and 
Pilmoor  in  1769,  and  Asbury  and  Wright  in  1 77 1 ,  they 
offered  themselves  for  the  work  and  were  accepted.  Like 
their  predecessors,  also,  they  lost  no  time  in  preparations  for 
their  departure.      "  The  King's  business  required  haste." 

Thomas  Rankin  was  a  Scot,  canny,  strong,  studious. 
His  boyhood  was  passed  among  Calvinists,  and,  until  White- 
field's  eloquence  filled  him  with  wonder  and  surprise,  he  had 
thought  little  of  the  plan  of  salvation  as  unfolded  by  the  un- 
tutored Methodist  itinerants  whom  he  had  heard.  He  had  to 
wrestle  manfully  for  the  peace  of  soul  which  he  ultimately 
won,  for  his  Calvinistic  training  suggested  to  him  the  possi- 
bility that  he  might  be  elected  to  be  lost.  But  after  an 
agony  of  prayer  he  came  into  a  full  sense  of  forgiveness. 
Thenceforth  he  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  Methodists,  was 
soon  drafted  into  the  active  work,  and  had  been  nearly  a 
dozen  years  gaining  strength  as  an  evangelist  and  organ- 
izer when  the  American  door  opened  and  he  found  himself 
a  missionary — by  Wesley's  appointment  the  head  of  the 
work  in  the  New  World. 

Shadford,  the  junior  preacher,  has  left  a  fragrant  memory 


Captain  Webb  on  a  Missionary  Excursion. 

Drawn  by  J.  Carter  Beard. 


m 


"Let    Loose  on    a    Continent" 


87 


in  Methodism.  He  was  a  Lincolnshire  man  of  some  thirty- 
five  years,  "  an  ardent,  active,  happy  worker,"  who  had  come 
into  the  light  out  of  great  darkness,  and  was  one  of  the  most 
simple-hearted  and   winning  of   the  early  evangelists.     To 


HE     COPPERPLATE 


REV.   THOMAS    RANKIN. 

Presiding  officer  of  the  first  Methodist  Conference  in  America. 

him  in  April,  1773,  Wesley  wrote  the  following  letter,  which 
deserves  insertion  in  full  as  a  fine  example  of  Wesley's  way 
of  addressing  his  preachers: 

"Dear  George:   The  time  is  arrived  for  you  to  embark 
for  America.     You  must  go  down  to  Bristol,  where  you  will 


88  American  Methodism 

meet  with  Thomas  Rankin,  Captain  Webb  and  his  wife.  I 
let  you  loose,  George,  on  the  great  continent  of  America. 
Publish  your  message  in  the  open  face  of  the  sun,  and  do  all 
the  good  you  can. 

"  I  am,  dear  George,  yours  affectionately, 

"  John  Wesley." 

The  missionary  party,  accompanied  by  another  volunteer, 
Joseph  Yearbry,  arrived  in  Philadelphia  on  June  3,  1773. 
Asbury,  who  was  in  the  city,  resigned  to  Rankin  his  tempo- 
rary authority  over  the  American  societies,  probably  warning 
the  latter  at  the  same  time  of  the  irregularities  which  he  had 
endeavored  to  remove.  The  new  chief  wrote  soon  afterward  : 
"  If  my  brethren  who  first  came  over  [Boardman  and  Pilmoor] 
had  been  more  attentive  to  our  discipline,  there  would  have 
been  a  more  glorious  work  by  this  time  in  many  places. 
Their  love  feasts  and  meetings  of  society  were  laid  open  to 
all  their  particular  friends,  so  that  their  number  did  not 
increase,  and  the  minds  of  our  best  friends  were  thereby 
hurt." 

Asbury's  comment  on  Rankin's  first  sermon,  from  the  text, 
"  I  have  set  before  thee  an  open  door,  and  no  man  can  shut 
it,"  was  brief  and  to  the  point:  "  He  will  not  be  admired  as 
a  preacher,  but  as  a  disciplinarian  he  will  fill  the  place."  It 
was  no  secret  that  they  were  come  to  lay  the  ax  at  the  root 
of  the  tree  of  irregularity.  Pilmoor  said  of  Shadford's  ex- 
hortation, "  He  called  it  True  Old  Methodism,  and  seemed 
to  intimate  the  people  had  wanted  it  till  now." 

The  missionaries  found  plenty  of  work  to  do.  Asbury 
escorted  his  successor  to  New  York,  where  a  cheering  re- 
vival rewarded  his  efforts.  The  newcomer  dealt  frankly 
with  the  faults  which  he  detected  in  the  society,  and  ex- 
pressed his  "  surprise  at  the  extravagance  of  dress,  in  par- 


A  New  Step 


89 


ticular  among  the  women."  Sliadford,  meanwhile,  was 
preaching  at  Trenton  and  other  towns  in  New  Jersey. 
Abraham  Whitworth,  an  English  preacher,  had  been  rous- 
ing  South   Jersey  with   his   eloquence,  and    in    touching  the 


FROM    THE    ENGRAVING     BT    RlDLE* 
METHOD. ST     MAGAZINE 


REV.  GEORGE  SHADFORD. 
One  of  the  mo^t  devoted  of  the  Wesleyan  Missionaries  to  America. 

great  heart  of  Benjamin  Abbott  had  opened  the  way  for  the 
conversion  of  hundreds  more.  Six  weeks  after  Rankin's 
arrival  in  America  he  brought  the  preachers  together  at 
Philadelphia  in  a  Conference  upon  the  Wesleyan  plan,  to 
hear  Wesley's  instructions  and  to  adopt  rules  for  a  uniform 
government. 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  First  Conference  in  America 

Methodist  Conferences. — Quarterly  Meetings. — The  Conference 
of  1773.  —  Personnel.  —  The  Absentees. —  Spirit.— Work. —  The 
First  Methodist  Book  Agent  in  America.— Regulating  the 
Publications. 

THE  "Conference"  has  been  a  characteristic  feature  of 
Methodism  since  the  last  week  of  June,  1744,  when 
the  Wesleys  and  their  fellow  clerical  and  lay  preachers 
— ten  in  all — met  in  that  old  London  gunshop,  called  the 
Foundry  Chapel,  to  discuss  their  campaign  for  spreading 
scriptural  holiness  over  the  land.  Then  and  there  began 
that  powerful  connectional  feeling  which  pervades  all  mem- 
bers of  the  Wesleyan  fold  and  which  has  carried  many  enter- 
prises to  success.  From  these  annual  meetings  of  the  preach- 
ers has  issued  that  feeling  of  fellowship  and  manly  sympathy 
which  has  welded  the  Methodist  clergy  everywhere  into  an 
indissoluble  brotherhood. 

For  the  first  half  dozen  years  after  the  lay  evangelists  began 
to  raise  their  voices  in  behalf  of  spiritual  religion  throughout 
the  American  colonies  there  seems  to  have  been  no  attempt 
to  secure  a  general  gathering  of  the  preachers.  The  workers 
were  few  in   number,  their  fields  of   labor  widely  separated, 

and  means  of  communication  difficult.     Yet  the  scattered  so- 

90 


The  First  American  Conference  91 

cieties  acknowledged  their  common  origin  and,  when  the  time 
came,  eagerly  accepted  the  authority  which  Wesley  asserted 
over  them.  The  earliest  preachers  were  sure  of  hospitable 
entertainment  wherever  Methodist  societies  had  been  formed, 
and,  feeble  as  they  were,  one  society  had  been  known  to 
contribute  to  the  building  fund  of  another  in  a  distant  city. 

The  institution  of  the  quarterly  meeting  was  one  of  the 
earliest  manifestations  of  the  connectional  feeling  among  the 
American  Methodists.  On  these  occasions  the  leading  mem- 
bers from  a  number  of  neighboring  societies  would  assemble, 
often  with  their  families,  for  religious  services  which  lasted 
several  days,  and  at  which  sermons  were  delivered  by  the 
circuit  and  local  preachers,  now  and  then  by  some  visiting 
preacher  or  friendly  clergyman.  At  some  of  these  Quarterly 
Conferences,  as  Atkinson  shows,  the  general  assistant  was 
present,  and  preachers  were  stationed  on  the  neighboring 
circuits. 

Thomas  Rankin,  Wesley's  personal  representative,  who 
came  over  in  June,  1773,  called  together  the  first  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  preachers  in  America.  The  date  appointed 
was  Tuesday,  July  13,  1773,  and  the  place  was  Philadelphia, 
but  Asbury  and  another  preacher  having  been  detained,  the 
assembly  adjourned  to  Wednesday.  It  was  not  until  the  day 
following,  the  second  of  the  session,  that  Francis  Asbury 
arrived  at  that  first  of  the  long  series  of  Conferences  in  which, 
until  his  death,  he  was  to  be  the  controlling  mind.  Few 
could  have  prophesied  at  the  time  the  magnitude  of  his  ad- 
ministrative career  or  the  splendor  of  his  strategic  genius. 
He  was  only  in  his  twenty-eighth  year,  and  had  been  hardly 
two  years  in  America.  His  zeal  for  the  cause,  however,  was 
already  apparent,  but  his  steady  insistence  upon  the  vigorous 
enforcement  of  the  rules  had  somewhat  strained  his  relations 


92 


American   Methodism 


with  some  of  the  older  preachers.  Perhaps  even  then  those 
qualities  were  developing  of  which  his  good  friend  Jarratt, 
the  Virginia  clergyman,  spoke  somewhat  tartly  a  few  years 
later  (1780)  as  "  his  strong  passion  for  superiority  and  thirst 
for  domination." 

Thomas  Rankin  presided,  by  virtue  of  his  commission  from 
Wesley,  as  "general  assistant,"  or   "  superintendent"  of  the 


THE    FIRST   CONFERENCE    IN    AMERICA,    1773. 


American  societies.  Numerous  complaints  had  reached  Wes- 
ley at  City  Road  concerning  the  disturbed  condition  of  the 
work  in  the  New  World  and  because  of  the  failure  of  his  mis- 
sionaries to  enforce  the  discipline  ;  and  he  designated  Rankin, 
one  of  his  most  trusted  helpers,  to  set  matters  right.  He 
was  a  stranger  to  the  country  and  its  conditions,  and  was 
probably  but  slightly  acquainted  with  the  men  whose  opera- 
tions he  must  direct. 

It  will  help  us  to  understand  the  suspicion  under  which  the 


The  Men  of  '73  93 

Methodists  rested  in  the  early  years  of  the  Revolutionary  War 
if  we  consider  that  every  member  of  this  pioneer  gathering 
of  their  preachers  was  of  alien  birth.     They  were,   in  fact, 

foreign  missionaries  among-  us.  We  can  scarcely  wonder 
that  their  presence  in  Philadelphia  passed  unnoticed  in  the 
public  prints.  There  was  not  an  ordained  minister  among 
them.  Not  even  Rankin  himself  had  authority  to  administer 
the  sacraments.  They  were  simply  ten  lay  evangelists,  poor 
in  purse,  not  learned  in  the  university,  not  seeking  the  ap- 
plause of  men,  anxious  only  to  spread  the  power  of  godliness 
in  a  land  of  spiritual  dearth.  Conspicuous  in  the  Conference 
was  Captain  Webb,  the  half-pay  veteran  who  had  recently 
come  from  England  with  recruits  for  the  cause  which  lay 
next  his  heart.  Richard  Boardman  and  the  eloquent  Pilmoor, 
Wesley's  first  accredited  missionaries,  were  present,  both 
smarting  from  the  criticisms  which  had  been  passed  upon  the 
work  in  the  cities.  Pilmoor  had  just  returned  from  a  year 
of  faithful  itinerant  labor  which  had  taken  him  as  far  south 
as  Charleston  and  Savannah.  Shadford  and  Yearbry,  who 
had  come  over  with  Rankin,  watched  the  deliberations  of 
their  new  colleagues  with  profound  concern.  It  is  probable 
that  Richard  Wright,  Asbury's  fellow- voyager  in  1 77  i .  and 
Abraham  Whit  worth,  whose  eloquence  had  lately  winged  the 
Gospel  to  the  heart  of  that  rough  apostle.  Benjamin  Abbott, 
made  up  the  number.  The  tenth,  if  indeed  there  were  ten, 
for  no  roll  of  attendance  has  been  preserved,  was  either  John 
King,  whose  first  sermon  had  been  preached  in  the  Potter's 
Field  in  Philadelphia  in  1770,  or,  less  probably,  Robert  Straw- 
bridge,  the  Maryland  pioneer. 

The  most  notable  absentees  were  the  enterprising  colpor- 
teur, Robert  Williams,  and  his  companion,  William  Watters, 
then  the  onlv  native  American  itinerant.      These  two  evan- 


94  American  Methodism 

gelists  were  too  busy  circulating  tracts  and  preaching  the 
word  in  Virginia  to  spare  a  month's  time  to  go  the  long  dis- 
tance to  Philadelphia. 

The  building  where  the  session  was  held  was  St.  George's, 
which  had  been  bought  for  the  society  in  Philadelphia  in 
1769,  through  the  efforts  of  Pilmoor  and  others.  From  the 
pages  of  Pilmoor's  Journal  we  obtain  some  knowledge  of  the 
spirit  which  dominated  the  Conference.  On  Tuesday,  July 
13,  he  writes:  "  Several  of  us  met  at  our  church  at  six  in  the 
morning.  As  two  of  the  preachers  had  not  arrived  we  agreed 
to  adjourn  until  the  next  day.  At  seven  in  the  evening  Mr. 
Boardman  preached  a  most  excellent  sermon  on  the  important 
work  of  the  Christian  ministry.  Wednesday  morning  we 
met  and  entered  upon  our  business  in  the  fear  of  the  most 
high  God.  As  Mr.  Boardman  and  I  had  been  shamefully 
misrepresented  to  Mr.  Wesley,  and  Mr.  Rankin  sent  over  to 
take  the  whole  management  upon  himself,  it  was  expected 
we  would  have  pretty  close  work.  Had  we  given  place  to 
nature,  and  followed  our  own  temporal  interest,  it  would 
probably  have  been  so.  But  we  considered,  and  preferred 
the  interests  of  religion  and  the  honor  of  God  above  all  the 
riches  and  honors  the  world  can  bestow,  and  were  determined 
to  submit  to  anything  consistent  with  a  good  conscience 
rather  than  injure  the  work  of  the  Lord.  In  this  spirit  we 
were  kept  during  the  Conference.  We  consulted  together 
under  the  tender  visitations  of  the  Almighty,  and  were  favored 
with  the  presence  and  blessing  of  God.  So  the  enemy  of 
souls  was  disappointed  and  all  our  matters  were  settled  in 
peace." 

To  Asbury's  clearer  vision  all  things  were  not  so  peaceful. 
"  I  did  not  find  such  harmony  as  I  could  wish  for,"  he  says. 
"  There  were  some  debates  among  the  preachers  in  this  Con- 


Asbury's   Ground  of  Complaint  95 

ference  relative  to  the  conduct  of  some  who  had  manifested 

a  desire  to  abide  in  cities  and  live  like  gentlemen.  ...  It 
was  also  found  that  money  had  been  wasted,  improper  leaders 
appointed,  and  many  of  our  Rules  broken." 

It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  one  so  devoted  to  order  as 
Asbury  had  not  lost  patience  over  the  irregularities  which 
had  crept  into  the  societies  during  these  formative  years. 
The  laborers  were  few,  and  too  intent  on  their  chief  end, 
the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  to  give  close  attention  to  dis- 
cipline. Asbury's  complaint  in  regard  to  the  excessive  im- 
portance attached  to  the  work  in  the  cities  doubtless  grew 
out  of  his  irrepressible  energy,  which  burned  to  see  the  con- 
tinent covered  with  preaching  stations.  Yet  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  the  city  stations  were  strategic  points,  and 
Boardman's  labors  for  the  society  in  New  York  and  Pilmoor's 
far-sighted  leadership  in  Philadelphia  must  not  be  under- 
estimated. What  with  the  John  Street  Chapel  to  be  paid  for, 
and  a  heavy  debt  on  the  bare  shell  of  St.  George's,  it  would 
have  been  reckless  policy  for  the  first  Wesleyan  preachers  to 
plunge  into  the  woods  without  a  safe  base  of  operations. 

The  reports  from  the  scattered  societies  presented  a  total 
membership  of  i .  160.  Maryland  led  off  with  500,  New  Jersey 
returned  200,  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  180  each,  and 
Yirginia,  100;  the  round  numbers  suggesting  that  the  figures 
represent  estimates  rather  than  an  accurate  copy  of  the  class 
rolls. 

The  Minutes  set  forth  decisions  of  the  Conference  in  the 
form  of  question  and  answer,  after  the  Socratic  manner  which 
had  always  existed  in  the  Conference  in  England.  Here  they 
are,  with  a  brevity  quite  tantalizing : 

1 .  Ought  not  the  authority  of  Mr.  Wesley  and  that  Conference  to  extend  to  the 
preachers  and  people  in  America  as  well  as  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland?     Yes. 


96 


American  Methodism 


2.  Ought  not  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Methodists,  as  contained  in 
the  Minutes,  to  be  the  sole  rule  of  our  conduct  who  labor,  in  the  connection 
with  Mr.  Wesley,  in  America?     Yes." 

3.  If  so,  does  it  not  follow  that  if  any  preachers  deviate  from  the  Minutes,  we 
,^^        can   have    no    fellowship 


MINUTES 

OF    SOME 

CONVERSATIONS 

BETWEEN     THE 

PREACHERS 

IN    CONNECTION    WITH 

The  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wefley. 

PHILADELPHIA, 

June,   1773. 


— 1-^-<^.^.<^.^.^>^>+>-> — . 


T 


H  E  following  queries  were  propofed  to  every 
preacher  : 

1.  Ought  not  the  authority  of  Mr.  Wefley  and  that 
conference,  to  extend  to  the  preachers  and  people  in 
America,  as  well  as  in  Great- Britain  and  Ireland? 

Anfiv.  Yes. 

2.  Ought  not  the  doctrine  and  difcipline  of  the 
Methodids,  as  contained  in  the  minutes,  to  be  the 
fole  rule  of  our  conduct  who  labour,  in  the  connec- 
tion with  Mr.  Wefley,  in  America  ? 

Anfnv.  Yes. 

3.  If  fo,  does  it  not  follow,  that  if  any  preachers 
deviate  from  the  minutes,  we  can  have  no  fellowfhlp 
with  them  till  they  change  their  cQnduct  ? 

Anfw.    Yes". 

The  following  rules  were  agreed  to  by  all  the 
preachers  present : 

;.  Every  preacher  who  acts  in  connection  with 
Mr.  Wefley  and  the  brethren  who  labour  in  Ameri- 

FACSIMILE  OF  THE  PRINTED  MINUTES,   I773.     (A) 

The  rules,  six  in   number,  dealt  chiefly 
the  relation  of  the  Methodists  to  the  Ch 


with  them  till  they  change 
their  conduct  ?     Yes. 

These  enact- 
ments established 
formally  the  con- 
nection of  the  Am- 
erican societies 
with  their  English 
brethren,  acknowl- 
edged the  authority 
of  the  British  Con- 
ference, and  bound 
the  American 
preachers  to  con- 
form to  the  Wes- 
leyan  practices  as 
printed  in  the  Min- 
utes. The  fact  that 
"all  the  preachers 
present  agreed"  to 
the  rules  which 
were  adopted  may 
be  accepted  as  proof 
that  the  determined 
Maryland  pioneer 
was  not  present  at 
this  Conference, 
with  two  subjects — 
urch  and  the  circula- 


Earliest  Rules  of  American   Methodism. 


97 


don  of  Methodist  hooks.  The  finger  of  John  Wesley,  min- 
ister of  the  Church  of  England,  is  plainly  visible  in  both 
these  fundamental  rules: 


I.  Every  preacher  who  acts  in  connection  with  Mr 
who  labor  in  America  is 


Wesley  and  the  brethren 


strictly  to  avoid  adminis- 
tering the  ordinances  of 
baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper. 

2.  All  the  people 
among  whom  we  labor 
to  be  earnestly  exhorted 
to  attend  the  church,  and 
to  receive  the  ordinances 
there;  but  in  a  particular 
manner  to  press  the  peo- 
ple in  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia to  the  observance 
of  this  minute. 


ca,  is  (Iridtly  to  avoid  adminiftering  the  ordinances  of 
baptifm  and  the  Lord's  fupper. 

2.  All  the  people  among  whom  we  labour  to 
be  earneftly  exhorted  to  attend  the  church,  and  to 
receive  the  ordinances  there  ;  but  in  a  particular  man- 
ner to  prefs  the  people  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  to 
the  obfervance  of  this  minute. 

3.  No  perfon  or  perfons  to  be  admitted  to  our 
love-feafts  oftener  than  twice  or  thrice,  unlefs  they 
become  members;  and  none  to  be  admitted  to  the 
fociety  meetings  more  than  thrice. 

4.  None  of  the  preachers  in  America  to  re- 
print any  of  Mr.  Wefley's  books,  without  his  au- 
thority (when  it  can  be  got)  and  the  confent  of  their 
brethren. 

5.  Robert  Williams  to  fell  the  books  he  has  alrea- 
dy printed,  but  to  print  no  more,  unlefs  under  the 
above  reftri&ion. 

6.  Every  preacher  who  afls  as  an  afiiftant,  to- 
fend  an  account  of  the  work  once  in  fix  months  to- 
the  general  affiftant. 

^ufjl.    1 .   How  are  the  preachers  fiationed  ? 


Anfw.  New-York,    Thomas  Rankin,  1  to  change 
George  Shadford,_J  in  4  mons. 


Philadelphia, 
New-Jerfey,  I 


Baltimore, 

Norfolk, 
Peterjburg, 


\ 


The  men  who 
made  these  rules 
were  themselves 
lay  members  of  the 
Church  of  England, 
of  which  "Wesley 
was  an  ordained 
presbyter.  It  was 
his  desire,  and 
theirs  at  the  outset, 
that  Methodism 
should  be  nothing- 
more  than  a  society 
of  the  truly  pious 
existing  within  the 
pale  of  the  Church. 
His  traveling  and  local  preachers  were  simply  lay  evangelists, 


John  King, 
William  Waters. 
Francis  Afbury, 
Robert  Strawbridge, 
Abraham  Whitworth, 
Jofeph  Yerbery. 
Richard  Wright. 
Robert  Williams. 


Queji.  2 .  What  numbtr  arc  there  in  the  fociety  i 

Anfw.  New- York 
Philadelphia 
New-Jerfey 
Maryland 
Virginia 


180 
180 

200 
500 
100 


1160 

FACSIMILE  OF  THE  PRINTED  MINUTES,    1773.      (B) 


98  American   Methodism 

and  these  rules  for  America  only  expressed  the  burden  of  his 
urgent  exhortation  to  the  Methodists  at  home  to  honor  the 
Church  and  its  services,  and  to  receive  baptism  and  the  Lord's 
.Supper  only  at  the  hands  of  its  regularly  ordained  clergy.  In 
England  the  Established  Church  was  everywhere  accessible, 
but  in  America  the  case  was  far  different.  The  Reformed 
Churches,  the  Presbyterians,  and  even  the  Baptists,  we're 
numerous  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey  ;  Philadelphia  itself 
was  a  city  of  Quakers,  while  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  where 
the  Church  of  England  prevailed,  its  ministers  were,  as  a 
class,  characterized  by  worldliness  and  neglect  of  the  spiritual 
things  which  the  Methodists  held  most  dear. 

The  question  of  the  right  of  the  American  preachers  to  ad- 
minister the  sacrament  came  up  repeatedly  in  the  following 
years,  and  brought  the  connection  to  the  verge  of  disunion. 
But  it  was  finally  settled  in  1784,  wrhen  the  societies  declared 
themselves  a  Church  and  their  preachers  assumed  all  the 
rights  and  powers  of  ministers. 

It  is  interesting  to  hear  from  Asbury  that  Strawbridge  was 
by  name  excepted  from  this  prohibition,  an  irregularity  which 
must  have  galled  the  man  of  discipline.  Doubtless  the 
brethren  thus  made  merit  of  necessity ;  for  it  is  well 
known  that  the  sturdy  Irish  farmer  set  his  own  value  on 
ordinations,  and  considered  himself  not  unworthy  to  baptize 
the  converts  whom  the  Lord  had  given  to  him. 

The  third  rule  was  intended  to  correct  the  loose  practice  of 
some  preachers  of  admitting  merely  curious  persons  to  the 
Methodist  exercises.  Preaching  was  free  to  all,  but  the  cul- 
tivation of  spiritual  life  could  be  best  attained  by  the  select 
body  of  earnest  seekers  after  truth.  The  third  rule  provided 
that  no  person  or  persons  should  be  admitted  to  the  love 
feasts  oftener  than  twice  or  thrice,  unless  they  should  become 


The  Beginning  of  the  Book   Business  99 

members,  and  none  might  be  admitted  to  the  society  meetings 
more  than  thrice. 

The  fourth  and  fifth  rules  bring'  us  to  a  subject  of  highest 
importance.  John  Wesley  was  among  the  first  to  recognize 
the  availability  of  cheap  printing  as  a  means  of  disseminating 
his  ideas.  For  many  years  he  had  been  issuing  religious 
books — hymnals,  magazines,  tracts,  sermons,  and  journals — 
in  rapid  succession,  and  the  results  had  amply  proved  the  wis- 
dom and  usefulness  of  the  undertaking.  With  that  sound 
common  sense  which  was  his  dominating  characteristic  he 
had  kept  his  own  controlling  hand  upon  this  increasing  busi- 
ness until,  at  his  death,  it  should  be  turned  over  to  the  Con- 
ference, to  yield  a  revenue  for  many  beneficent  works.  The 
plain  lesson  from  his  experience  was  that  the  Methodist  pub- 
lishing arrangements  in  America  should  be  unified  and  made 
subject  to  similar  control.  He  had  already  made  donations 
of  books  to  the  society  in  Xew  York,  his  brother's  hymns 
had  been  sung  from  the  Chesapeake  to  the  Hudson,  and  at 
least  one  of  the  itinerants  had  begun  to  reprint  and  scatter 
broadcast  in  Virginia  the  sermons  and  tracts  which  had  been 
the  seed  of  the  Great  Revival  in  the  old  country. 

This  first  American  Methodist  Book  Agent,  chosen  by  no 
General  Conference  and  answerable  to  no  Book  Committee, 
was  Robert  Williams.  Of  his  own  motion,  and  with  what 
capital  it  is  difficult  to  imagine,  he  had  printed  a  number  of 
pamphlets  containing  Wesley's  sermons  and  other  Methodist 
writings.  These  he  carried  with  him  on  his  rounds.  Philip 
Gatch  tasted  one  of  them  to  his  soul's  health  in  1772,  and  the 
Rev.  Devereux  Jarratt,  the  Virginia  Churchman,  learned  the 
principles  of  Methodism  from  the  same  source.  Commend- 
able as  was  Williams's  publishing  activity,  those  who  know 
the  magnitude  of  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  of  the  next 


100  American  Methodism 

century  in  all  its  strength  and  usefulness  will  not  find  fault 
with  the  sagacity  of  the  fathers  in  enacting  these  rules  for 
the  unification  of  our  publishing  interests : 

4.  None  of  the  preachers  in  America  to  reprint  any  of  Mr.  Wesley's  books, 
without   his   authority  (when  it  can  be  got)  and  the  consent  of  their  brethren. 

5.  Robert  Williams  to  sell  the  books  he  has  already  printed,  but  to  print  no 
more,  unless  under  the  above  restrictions. 

The  sixth  and  last  rule  carried  still  further  the  idea  of  con- 
nectional  unity  and  marked  the  introduction  of  the  system  of 
supervision  and  reports  which  has  contributed  so  much  to  the 
efficiency  of  the  organization  : 

6.  Every  preacher  who  acts  as  an  assistant  to  send  an  account  of  the  work 
once  in  six  months  to  the  general  assistant. 

The  last  item  of  business  was  the  reading  of  the  appoint- 
ments : 

New  York — Thomas  Rankin. 
Philadelphia — George  Shadford. 

(These  to  change  in  four  months.) 
New  Jersey — John  King,  William  Watters. 

Baltimore — Francis  Asbury,  Robert  Strawbridge,  Abraham  Whitworth, 
Joseph  Yearbry. 

Norfolk — Richard  Wright. 
Petersburg — Robert  Williams. 

Thus  is  the  whole  Atlantic  coast  divided  among  a  few  itin- 
erant preachers.  They  had  scanty  funds,  but  intense  energy 
and  high  hopes.  Compare  the  few  names  and  brief  records 
of  the  Minutes  of  the  Conference  of  1773,  printed  on  a  few 
duodecimo  leaves,  with  the  voluminous  General  Minutes  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  and  other  branches  of  American  Methodism, 
with  their  octavo  volumes  of  more  than  a  thousand  pages 
packed  with  the  statistics  of  two  hundred  Annual  Conferences 
and  the  appointments  of  nearly  forty  thousand  preachers. 


CHAPTER  X 
The  Parting  of  the  Ways 

Return  of  Boardman  and  Pilmoor  to  England. — Their  Subsequent 
Career. — Atkinson's  Valuable  Service. — Methodist  History. 
— Pilmoor's  Vindication. — The  Unity  of  the  Brethren. 

THE  earliest  pair  of  Wesleyan  missionaries,  Boardman 
and  Pilmoor,  received  no  appointments,  though  both 
were  present  at  the  Conference  of  1773.  We  have 
no  statement  of  the  reasons  for  this  omission,  though  we 
know  that  their  work  had  been  adversely  criticised  by  Asbury, 
complaints  had  been  sent  to  Mr.  Wesley,  and  Rankin  had 
given  ear  to  the  charge  that  they  had  been  lax  in  the  applica- 
tion of  the  Rules. 

The  enactment  of  the  Conference  restricting  the  attend- 
ance upon  love  feasts  to  members  of  society  was  evidently 
aimed  at  them.  Nothing  was  said,  or  indeed  could  be, 
against  their  faithful  preaching,  their  self-denying  devotion, 
and  their  loving  ministry. 

The  two  friends  remained  in  America  but  six  months 
longer,  preaching  and  helping  the  other  preachers  in  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  seemingly  still  in 
full  fellowship  with  the  American  Methodists.  They  had 
decided  to  return  to  England,  and  Boardman  was  anxious  to 

IOI 


102  American  Methodism 

be  off.  On  the  last  Sabbath  of  1773  Pilmoor  preached  his 
farewell  sermon  in  Philadelphia,  the  day  closing  with  a 
never-to-be-forgotten  "love  feast."  "My  heart,"  says  the 
faithful  missionary,  "  was  so  affected  by  the  thought  of  leav- 
ing a  people  who  are  dear  to  me  as  life  itself,  that  I  was 
almost  overwhelmed  with  sorrow.  I  should  certainly  have 
yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  my  friends  to  continue  in  Amer- 
ica, only  I  was  determined  not  to  desert  Mr.  Boardman, 
though  it  should  cost  me  my  life.  God  gave  me  such  com- 
fort in  him  that  in  the  evening  I  preached  my  farewell  ser- 
mon to  a  vast  multitude  of  weeping  citizens  with  much  more 
firmness  than  I  expected."  Still  preaching  where  he  could 
find  hearers,  he  crossed  New  Jersey  by  wagon  and  sleigh. 
The  first  Sunday  of  the  new  year,  January  2,  1774,  found 
him  again  in  the  pulpit  of  Wesley  Chapel,  "with  feelings 
too  big  for  expression."  A  few  days  later  Boardman  and  he 
set  sail  for  Bristol,  deeply  regretted  by  hundreds  of  their 
spiritual  children. 

"Blessed  be  God,"  exclaims  Pilmoor,  "who  has  kept  us 
by  his  gracious  power,  so  that  we  have  not  done  anything  to 
hinder  our  usefulness  in  this  country,  or  make  the  people 
wish  to  have  us  removed!"  And  again,  "  The  people  are 
as  eager  to  hear  Mr.  Boardman  and  me  as  they  were  the  first 
day  we  arrived." 

On  their  return  to  England  Boardman  at  once  took  a  Con- 
ference appointment  and  continued  in  the  itinerant  service, 
chiefly  on  Irish  circuits,  until  1782,  when  he  died  suddenly  in 
the  midst  of  his  usefulness.  "On  Friday  morning,  October  4, 
1 782,"  says  a  contemporary,  ' '  he  was  observed  to  pray  with  an 
uncommon  degree  of  power  "and  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing "he  expired  in  the  arms  of  two  of  his  brethren."  "  Kind, 
loving,  childlike,"  were  the  attributes  with  which  his  friends 


Pilmoor's   Subsequent  Career 


103 


described  his  character.  Pilmoor  did  not  resume  his  Con- 
ference connection  for  several  years,  though  "  preaching  fre- 
quently five  times  a  week."  In  1776,  however,  he  was 
appointed  to  London,  and  continued  to  be  sent  to  the  most 
important  circuits  until  1  785,  when  his  name  was  dropped  from 
the  roll.  His  self-esteem  was  wounded  by  his  exclusion 
from  the  "Legal  Hundred"  of  preachers — the  corporation 
to  which  John  Wesley  deeded  the  vast  property  and  authority 
which    he    had 


f 


DRAWN    BY   WARREN    B      OAVIS.  fROM   A    PHOTOGRAPH, 

THE  TOMB  OF  REV.  RICHARD  BOARDMAN,  AT  CORK. 


accumulated  as 
the  founder  of 
Methodism— and 
h  e  w  1 1  h  d  r  e  w 
from  the  con- 
nection forever. 
SamuelSeabury, 
the  Connecticut 
minister  who 
had  just  been 
consecrated  to 
the  episcopacy 
by  the  Scottish  bishops,  ordained  him,  and  he  devoted  the 
remainder  of  his  long-  and  useful  career  to  the  regular 
ministry  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  America. 
His  new  associations  did  not  cool  his  evangelical  ardor  or 
destroy  his  friendly  regard  for  the  Methodist  people.  As 
late  as  1807  he  exhibited  his  Christian  liberality  by  writing: 
"  The  Methodists  bid  fair  to  outnumber  most  of  their  neigh- 
bors. This  is  indeed  the  Lord's  doing,  showing  that  life 
and  zeal  in  religion  are  worth  more  than  all  the  arts  and 
sciences  together."  He  served  parishes  in  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  where  he  died  in  1825. 


104 


American   Methodism 


L 


3  ^s'  >=  -I  eS   '.  I  1«J  irl  5S  t   XI 


Results  ol  the  First  Conference  105 

Among  his  fellows  Pilmoor  stands  out  as  a  man  of  thor- 
ough scholarship,  persuasive  eloquence,  and  a  deeply  spiritual 
nature.  He  could  read  his  Bible  in  the  original  Hebrew  and 
Greek,  but  he  did  not  shrink  from  preaching  the  simple 
Gospel  in  barracks,  jails,  and  poorhouses.  He  was  the  wel- 
come table  companion  of  the  rich,  but  zealously  visited  from 
house  to  house  and  stopped  young  men  in  the  street  to  tell 
them  of  his  Master.  Asbury  might  accuse  him  of  abiding 
too  much  in  cities,  yet  his  southern  journey  (1772- 1773)  of  a 
thousand  miles  was  the  longest  and  most  arduous  that  any 
American  itinerant  had  yet  undertaken.  Atkinson  well  says 
of  him  and  the  colleague  whom  he  loved  so  well:  "  But  for 
their  presence  here  the  history  of  Methodism  in  this  country 
might  have  been  different  from  what  it  is.  Well-poised  men 
were  they,  discreet,  cultured,  holy,  eloquent,  lovers  of  man- 
kind, and  aflame  with  zeal  for  Christ.  Their  work  was 
wrought  in  love  and  its  effects  are  immortal." 

The  first  American  Conference  established  one  thing 
definitely  and  finally:  the  societies  which  had  been  planted 
in  the  lanes  of  Xew  York,  the  hamlets  of  New  Jersey,  and 
the  Maryland  backwoods,  by  the  carpenters,  farmers,  and 
men  of  business  with  or  without  parchments  from  Mr.  Wes- 
ley, but  invariably  under  God's  high  commission,  were  hence- 
forth to  be  one  body.  The  bond  that  held  them  to  Wesley 
held  them  together,  and  from  that  Friday  in  July,  1773,  when 
the  little  company  dispersed  to  go  to  their  respective  circuits, 
Methodism  in  America  has  been  strongly  connectional. 

Rankin,  the  steady,  earnest,  sober  president  of  the  Con- 
ference, could  say  when  it  was  over,  and  the  controversy 
which  had  ruffled  Asbury  had  subsided,  "  We  parted  in  love, 
and  also  with  a  full  resolution  to  spread  genuine  Methodism 
in  pirblic  and  private  with  all  our  might." 


CHAPTER  XI 

American  Volunteers 

The  First  Native  Preachers.— A  Matter  of  Dispute.— Eoward 
Evans  and  Richard  Owen. — William  Watters's  Experience.— 
"Called  Out"  by  Williams.— Peninsula  Methodism. 

THE  first  Conference  was  the  last  to  consist  solely  of 
foreign -born  preachers.  The  seed  which  these  mis- 
sionaries were  scattering  broadcast  came  rapidly  to 
fruit,  and  the  harvest  was  prompt  and  full.  Sons  of  Mary- 
land and  Virginia  planters  with  youths  from  the  farms  and 
towns  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Jerseys  met  the  plain-spoken 
itinerants  in  their  own  homes  and  on  the  highways,  heard 
them  preach  in  barns  and  courthouses  or  under  the  forest 
trees,  and  were  touched  to  the  heart  by  their  hymns  and 
prayers  and  burning  words.  Many  a  young  man  whose 
life  had  been  illuminated  and  enriched  by  the  first  appeal  he 
had  heard  went  forth  without  other  call  or  commission  than 
the  inward  impulse  to  preach  the  Gospel.  The  watchful  eye 
of  the  itinerant  detected  in  some  of  these  eager  youths  qual- 
ities of  the  highest  usefulness,  and  one  by  one  they  were 
summoned  to  leave  kindred  and  friends  and  enter  the  travel- 
ing ministry — at  first,  as  a  rule,  as  the  companion  of  a  veteran 

laborer,  and  later  as  regular  members  of  Conference.     Among 

1 06 


Edward  Evans  and  Richard  Owen  107 

the  enthusiastic  spirits  who  were  thus  brought  into  the  work 
were  plowboys  in  homespun,  and  rough  and  unlettered  boat- 
men, while  beside  them,  on  equal  footing,  stood  sons  of 
good  colonial  families  who  tore  themselves  away  from  loving 
friends  and  comfortable  homes  to  undergo  the  hardships  and 
dangers  of  the  itinerant  evangelist. 

The  first  native  American  preacher  of  Methodism,  accord- 
ing to  Atkinson,  was  Edward  Evans,  of  Philadelphia,  of  whom 
Pilmoor's  Journal  tells  us  the  little  that  we  know.  lie  was  a 
trophy  of  Whitefield's  revival  work,  and  had  stood  fast  in  the 
faith  for  nearly  thirty  years  when  Pilmoor  met  him  in  the 
Quaker  city  a  fewr  days  after  his  arrival  from  England  in 
1769.  He  attached  himself  at  once  to  the  Methodist  society, 
and  was  one  of  the  trustees  named  in  the  deed  of  the  new 
church  building.  Though  advanced  in  years,  he  preached  in 
the  city  and  in  neighboring  towns  as  early  as  1770.  In  the 
autumn  of  the  following  year  he  died.  For  some  months 
previously  he  had  been  the  minister  of  the  congregation  of 
"Greenwich  Chapel,"  located  near  the  present  village  of 
Clarksboro,  N.  J.  This  chapel  had  been  built  for  him  by 
the  people,  who  "were  exceedingly  fond  of  him,"  and  here 
on  the  14th  of  October,  1771,  the  good  missionary  preached 
the  funeral  sermon  of  his  "  ever  dear  and  venerable  friend." 

Before  Atkinson  advanced  the  claims  of  Edward  Evans  to 
the  distinction  of  being  "the  first  American  Methodist 
preacher "  this  honor  was  generally  conceded  to  Richard 
Owen,  or  Owings,  of  Baltimore  County,  Md.,  one  of  Straw- 
bridge's  early  converts.  He  is  described  as  "a  man  of  re- 
spectable family,  of  good  natural  parts  and  of  considerable 
utterance,  plain  in  his  dress,  plain  in  his  manners,  industrious 
and  frugal."  Owen  was  ardently  devoted  to  his  spiritual 
father,  assisted  him   in   his  work    as  an  evangelist  as  long 


108 


American   Methodism 


as  he  lived,  and  at  his  death  he  preached  the  funeral  sermon. 
After  many  years  of  active  service  in  the  local  ranks,  although 
he  frequently  left  his  family  to  go  on  extensive  preaching 
tours,  Owen  was  in  1785  admitted  to  the  traveling  connection. 
He  died  in  1787  at  Leesburg,  Va. 

Whatever  may  be  said  for  the  priority  of  Evans's  brief  and 
obscure  itinerant  service  and  of  Owen's  zealous  labors  as  a 


£.      FUNTOFl 


AFTER    A    PHOTOGRAPH. 


THE    DALLAM    HOMESTEAD,    HARFORD   COUNTY,    MD. 
A  Methodist  dwelling  frequented  by  Strawbridge,  Pilmoor,  Asbury,  Coke,  and  other  early  preachers. 

local  preacher,  William  Watters  and  Philip  Gatch  will  still  be 
known  as  the  first  native  Amerians  who  regularly  entered  the 
traveling  ministry  as  members  of  Conference  and,  as  one  of 
them  put  it,  "  went  out  among  the  Methodists  to  preach  the 
Gospel." 

Watters  was  a  Marylander,  born  near  Baltimore  in  1751, 
and  carefully  reared  in  a  Church  of  England  household.  The 
advent  of  the  Methodist  preachers  to  his  vicinity  in  1770,  just 


A  Young  Evangelist  109 

as  lie  was  approaching  manhood,  recalled  his  mind  from  the 
worldly  pursuits  of  his  associates  to  the  solemn  responsibilities 
of  life.  He  was  convicted  of  sin  and  in  May,  1 77 1 ,  a  number 
of  godly  people  went  to  his  father's  house  to  pray  for  him. 
As  they  sang"  with  the  spirit  and  in  faith, 

Give  to  the  winds  thy  fears, 

he  tells  us:  "  My  face  was  turned  to  the  wall,  with  my  eyes 
lifted  upward  in  a  flood  of  tears,  and  I  felt  a  lively  hope  that 
the  Lord  whom  I  sought  would  suddenly  come  to  his  temple. 
The  Lord  heard  and  appeared  in  the  midst  of  us.  A  divine 
light  beamed  through  my  inmost  soul,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
encircled  me  round,  surpassing  the  brightness  of  the  sun. 
My  burden  was  gone,  my  sorrow  fled,  my  soul  and  all  that 
was  within  me  rejoiced  in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God,  while 
I  beheld  such  a  fullness  and  willingness  in  the  Lord  Jesus  to 
save  lost  sinners,  and  my  soul  so  rested  on  him,  that  I  could 
now  for  the  first  time  call  Jesus  Christ  Lord  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.  The  hymn  being  concluded,  we  all  fell  upon  our 
knees,  but  my  prayers  were  turned  into  praises.  A  super- 
natural power  penetrated  every  faculty  of  my  soul  and  body." 
The  parish  clergyman  was  not  only  unspiritual,  but  openly 
immoral,  and  young  Watters  must  of  necessity  turn  to  the 
little  band  of  Methodists  for  fellowship.  He  counted  it  a 
princely  honor  to  be  received  among  them.  There  were  only 
a  few  Wesleyan  itinerants  in  America  in  those  days,  but,  as 
"Watters  says,  "  we  were  all  preachers."  The  visible  change, 
which  sinners  could  not  help  seeing,  was  a  means  of  leading 
them  to  seek  the  Lord.  On  the  Sabbath  they  commonly 
divided  into  little  bands  and  went  out  into  sparse  neighbor- 
hoods, wherever  there  was  a  door  open  to  receive  them,  and 
would  sing,  read,  pray,  and  talk  to  the  people,  and  some  soon 


110  American  Methodism 

began  to  add  a  word  of  exhortation.  They  were  weak,  but 
lived  in  a  dark  day,  and  the  Lord  greatly  owned  their  labors. 

Doubtless  Watters,  though  quite  young,  was  one  of  the  timid 
voices  that  "began  to  add  a  word  of  exhortation."  But  Robert 
Williams,  in  the  autumn  of  1772,  as  he  rode  through  the  prov- 
ince distributing  his  Wesleyan  tracts  and  preaching  his  earnest 
sermons,  saw  in  this  youth  the  promise  of  wider  usefulness, 
and  called  him  forth  to  travel  with  him  into  Virginia.  The 
young  man's  mother  and  friends  protested  with  tears.  "But," 
he  writes,  "  I  found  such  resignation  and  so  clear  a  conviction 
that  my  way  was  of  the  Lord  that  I  was  enabled  to  commit 
them  and  myself  to  the  care  of  our  heavenly  Father,"  and  so, 
' '  being  fully  persuaded  of  my  call  to  the  ministry,  and  that 
it  was  my  duty  to  go  wherever  a  kind  Providence  should  point 
out  the  way,  I  cheerfully  accepted  the  invitation  of  that  pious 
servant  of  the  Lord,  Robert  Williams,  and  set  out  with  him 
and  under  his  care  in  October,  1772,  for  Norfolk,  in  Virginia; 
being  just  twenty-one  years  of  age,  having  known  the  Lord 
seventeen  months,  and  been  exhorting  about  five  or  six." 

Watters  and  his  companion  traveled  slowly  to  their  des- 
tination, preaching  in  the  towns,  and  seizing  every  oppor- 
tunity to  "introduce  religious  conversation  as  we  rode  or  sat 
at  the  fireside  in  taverns  and  in  private  houses.  We  found 
very  few  in  the  course  of  three  hundred  miles  who  knew  ex- 
perimentally anything  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Pilmoor  had  slightly  preceded  the  two  evangelists  at  Nor- 
folk, and  had  planted  a  society  there,  but  Watters  continued 
to  travel  and  preach  in  southeastern  Virginia  until  after 
the  Conference  of  1773  had  met  at  Philadelphia.  His  ap- 
pointment was  to  the  New  Jersey  Circuit  as  the  junior  preach- 
er with  John  King.  He  was  unable  to  go  to  this  field,  how- 
ever, and   after  a  brief   rest  at  his  old  home  he  was  sent  to 


The  First  Peninsula  Circuit 


111 


Kent,  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  then  the  only  circuit 
between  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Delaware.  The  membership 
was  doubled  as  the  result  of  his  efforts,  but  it  has  doubled  so 
many  times  since  then  that  "the  Peninsula  "  has  long  been 


**:* 


>    S 


>. V  ~*i .  '* 


:.'.!i^alll-:telt    i 


£&£ 


DRAWN     BV     P.     E.     FLINTO^F  AFTER     A     PHOTOGRAPH 

BUSH    FOREST    CHAPEL,    MARYLAND. 
The  original  building   erected  of  logs  in  1768,  is  said  to  have  been  the  second  or  third  in  America. 

famous  for  the  numbers  and  sterling  quality  of  its  Methodist 
population. 

The  first  society  in  Kent  County  was  gathered  in  1773,  and 
the  "  Kent  Meeting  House,"  afterward  known  as  Hinson's 
Chapel,  was  built  in  the  following  year,  in  spite  of  an  opposi- 
tion which  manifested  itself  in  a  scandalous  attempt  to  burn 
it  down. 

Even  after  God  had  owned  Mr.  Watters's  labors  by  many 
infallible  signs  the  young  itinerant  was  troubled  by  misgiv- 
ing's concerning-  his  religious  condition.  At  the  close  of  a 
busy  and  successful  winter  on  the  Eastern  Shore  he  crossed 
the  bay  to  Baltimore,  preaching  in  the  vicinity  until  the  Con- 
ference met.  At  this  time  he  wrote,  "Though  sin  did  not 
reign   in  me,  yet  it  remained,  and   marred  my  happiness." 


112  American  Methodism 

For  this  reason  he  "  mourned,  wept,  fasted,  prayed,  and  truly 
longed  to  be  sanctified  throughout  soul,  body,  and  spirit." 

After  ten  years  of  faithful  itinerant  service  Watters  located 
in  1783  and  settled  upon  his  farm  near  Lang-ley,  Va.  Twice 
he  reentered  the  ministry  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
for  brief  periods,  and  after  his  final  retirement,  in  1806,  he 
frequently  preached  in  Alexandria,  Georgetown,  and  Wash- 
ington, and  it  has  been  said  with  truth  that  "  no  man  was 
more  acceptable  in  the  pulpit  than  he,  or  could  command  at 
all  times  larger  congregations."  In  his  later  years  his  ap- 
pearance and  manner  were  remarkably  impressive  and  ven- 
erable. A  notable  trait  was  the  exceeding  seriousness  that 
grew  upon  him,  so  that  one  who  had  been  his  pastor  "  never 
heard  him  laugh  and  seldom  saw  him  smile."  Watters  him- 
self said,  "Let  others  plead  the  innocence  or  usefulness  of 
levity,  I  cannot ;  though  God  knows  I  am  too  often  betrayed 
into  it,  but  never  without  feeling  that  it  more  or  less  unfits 
me  for  that  deep  recollection  and  that  constant  communica- 
tion with  the  Lord  which  nothing  should  for  a  moment 
interrupt." 

According  to  the  record  in  the  old  family  Bible  the  Rev. 
William  Watters  died  at  Langley,  Va.,  October  29,  1827. 
Many  of  his  successors  have  been  more  eloquent,  have  re- 
mained longer  in  the  service,  have  accomplished  greater 
things  for  Christ  and  the  Church,  but  universal  Methodism 
will  long  cherish  the  name  of  the  first  native  American 
itinerant  who  was  formally  associated  with  the  British  mis- 
sionaries in  proclaiming  "  Christianity  in  earnest"  on  this 
western  hemisphere. 


CHAPTER  XII 
An  American  Philip 

Gatch,  the  Companion  and  Successor  of  Waiters. — Labors  in  New 
Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Maryland.— Kain's  Discomfiture.— 
McLean's  Tribute. 

WHEX  \Yatters  failed  to  take  his  work  in  New  Jersey, 
in  1773,  Rankin,  the  general  assistant,  supplied 
his  place  with  another  young  Maryland  exhorter 
to  whom  had  come  the  unmistakable  call  to  preach.  This 
was  Philip  Gatch,  of  Georgetown,  the  present  District  of 
Columbia.  He  was  just  of  Watters's  age,  and  his  heart  also 
had  rejected  the  stones  which  the  worldly  parish  clergy  dealt 
out  to  a  people  hungering  for  the  bread  of  life.  The  doc- 
trines and  practice  of  the  Friends  suited  him  better,  but  the 
full  refreshment  did  not  come  until  Nathan  Perigo,  one  of 
Strawbridge's  converts,  passed  up  through  the  province  in- 
viting sinners  to  the  Gospel  feast.  "He  possessed  great 
zeal,"  wrote  Gatch  long  after,  describing  this  first  Methodist 
meeting  he  ever  attended,  "and  was  strong  in  the  faith  of 
the  Gospel.  I  was  near  him  when  he  opened  the  exercises. 
His  prayer  alarmed  me  much ;  I  never  had  witnessed  such 
energy  nor  heard  such  expressions  in  prayer  before.     I  was 

afraid  that  God  would  send  some  judgment  upon  the  congre- 

113 


114  American   Methodism 

gation  for  my  being  at  such  a  place."  His  prayer  of  faith 
and  plain  presentation  of  salvation  from  sin  through  the  sacri- 
fice of  Christ  made  full  conquest  of  the  serious  young  hearer. 
The  word  was  with  power.  "  I  was  the  first  person  known  to 
'  shout'  in  that  part  of  the  country,"  he  afterward  wrote.  To  his 
brother,  who  was  blessed  with  a  similar  experience,  he  made 
no  secret  of  his  conversion.  They  instituted  family  prayers 
in  the  paternal  mansion,  and  even  welcomed  the  traveling 
preachers  to  hold  meetings  there.  One  of  the  Wesleyan  tracts 
which  Robert  Williams  was  scattering  through  the  settle- 
ments fell  into  Philip's  hands.  It  was  Wesley's  sermon  on 
Salvation  by  Faith,  the  keynote  cf  the  Great  Revival,  and 
it  confirmed  his  belief  and  fortified  his  faith.  Before  the  end 
of  the  year  1772  he  was  telling  his  experience  to  little  com- 
panies of  his  friends  and  acquaintances  and  exhorting  them 
to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  and  lead  a  new  life.  Here 
Rankin  found  him,  as  Williams  had  discovered  Watters  a  few 
months  before,  and  set  before  him  the  whiteness  of  the  fields 
and  the  dearth  of  laborers,  concluding  by  a  direct  summons 
to  him  to  go  to  New  Jersey  as  a  traveling  preacher. 

"  It  was  like  breaking  asunder  the  tender  cords  of  life,  a 
kind  of  death  to  me,"  the  young  man  wrote  of  the  parting 
from  family  and  friends.  "  But  I  dared  not  look  back.  He 
that  will  be  Christ's  disciple  must  forsake  all  and  follow  him." 

As  he  went  forward  to  take  up  his  arduous  work,  Asbury, 
then  lying  ill,  called  him  to  his  bedside  to  give  him  wise 
counsel.  Sympathy,  too,  there  doubtless  was,  from  the  heart 
of  that  man  of  iron,  who  ever  bore  in  fresh  recollection 
the  memory  of  the  weeping  mother  whom  he  had  left  in  the 
old  Staffordshire  home.  Pilmoor,  perhaps  the  most  cultivated 
man  among  the  preachers,  was  in  Philadelphia  when  Gatch 
came  up  from  Maryland.      "  My  heart  rejoices,"  he  noted  in 


Philip  the  Apostle 


115 


his  fournal,  "that  the  Lord  is  raising  up  laborers  and  thrust- 
ing them  out  to  proclaim  salvation  in  the  deserts."  John 
King,  the    young    exhorter's    senior   colleague,   crossed    the 


CATCH'S   CHURCH,    BALTIMORE.       BUILT    1814. 

Named  from  Rev.  Philip  Gatch.  who  lived  in  this- locality.     Seven   generations  of  his 
kindred  lie  in  the  burying  ground  near  by. 

Delaware  with  him,  preached,  and  held  a  love  feast,  and 
then  left  the  stripling  with  all  New  Jersey  for  his  field  of 
labor. 

Supported  only  by  his  faith  in  God  and  in  his  mission, 
young  Gatch  addressed  himself  boldly  to  his  task,  and  though 
the  Methodist  name  "  was  very  much  spoken  against"  he 
made  at  least  a  beginning.  Philip  Gatch  continued  for  twenty 
years  to  travel  circuits  in  Xew  Jersey,  Delaware,  Maryland, 
and  Virginia.  He  had  enjoyed  small  educational  advantages 
in  youth,  and  his  pulpit  utterance  was  not  distinguished  for 
argument  or    profundity  of    thought,    neither  had    he   that 


116  American  Methodism 

spirited  eloquence  which  bears  the  hearer  away  on  its  rushing' 
tide.  He  was  exceedingly  plain  of  speech  and  simple  of 
manner,  but  his  language  was  so  clear,  his  manner  so  engag- 
ing, that  his  earnest  message  had  great  persuasive  power 
upon  all  who  heard.  Those  who  were  converted  under  his 
gentle  ministrations  were  numbered  by  thousands. 

Some  premonitions  of  the  rough  handling  which  Metho- 
dists were  to  receive  during  the  war  might  be  had  from  the 
experience  of  Gatch  in  these  years.  The  young  Marylander 
was  selected  to  replace  the  fallen  Whitworth  on  the  Kent 
Circuit  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  where  the  cause 
had  suffered  severely  from  his  disgrace.  There  was  a  loud 
outcry  against  the  Methodists,  and  in  one  place  a  man  would 
have  felled  Gatch  with  a  chair  but  that  the  latter,  on  his  knees, 
caught  and  warded  off  the  blow.  Men  in  the  congregation 
thrust  the  offender  out  of  doors,  and  the  incident  resulted  in 
bringing  more  people  to  hear  and  know  the  truth.  Parson 
Kain,  a  notoriously  pugnacious  clergyman,  often  measured 
quarterstaves  with  the  itinerants  on  the  Eastern  Shore.  On 
hearing  that  Gatch  had  made  an  appointment  to  preach  with- 
in the  bounds  of  his  parish  he  sallied  forth  to  give  him  eccle- 
siastical battle.  His  intellectual  statute  loomed  up  Goliath- 
like before  the  imagination  of  the  young  preacher,  but  with 
the  boldness  of  David  he  accepted  the  combat.  Having 
answered  the  parson's  challenge  of  his  authority  by  referring 
him  to  Scripture  warrant,  he  mounted  his  platform  under 
the  trees  and  gave  out  his  text.  He  wisely  chose  it  from 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  to  which  he  was  no  stranger. 
He  adroitly  introduced  so  much  of  good  Anglican  doctrine 
into  his  discourse  that  the  baffled  and  excited  minister  could 
scarcely  read  the  elaborate  reply  which  he  had  prepared. 
Kain,  however,   launched  out  against  the  "new  birth''  and 


Peter  and  the  Prayer  Book  117 

the  use  of  extemporary  prayers.  To  this  Gatch  promptly 
replied  that,  for  his  own  part,  he  knew  that  he  had  "been 
born  again,"  and  as  for  the  prayers,  "when  Peter  was  sink- 
ing he  did  not  go  ashore  to  get  a  prayer  book,  but  cried  out, 
'  Lord,  save,  or  I  perish  !T  '  This  sally  left  him  master  of  the 
field.  Brave,  simple,  devoted,  tactful,  he  soon  healed  the 
wound  of  Whitworth's  defection,  and  when  he  left  the  cir- 
cuit for  another  two  preachers  were  required  to  serve  the 
appointments  he  had  established. 

While  traveling  the  rural  circuits  in  these  early  years  Gatch 
was  subjected  to  annoyances  which  the  city  preachers  were 
spared.  Late  one  Saturday  night,  for  example,  he  was  way- 
laid on  a  Maryland  highway.  Two  men  armed  with  cudgels 
forced  him  into  a  tavern  where  a  band  of  roysterers  had  vowed 
to  make  the  Methodist  preacher  drunk.  He  resolutely  refused 
to  taste  their  liquor,  and  while  they  quarreled  among  them- 
selves he  escaped  out  of  their  hands. 

In  middle  life  Gatch  removed  to  a  pioneer  settlement  "on 
the  western  waters,"  a  few  miles  east  of  the  village  out  of 
which  the  great  city  of  Cincinnati  has  developed.  Though 
no  longer  a  traveling  preacher,  he  was  ever  ready  to  lend  a 
hand  to  the  Methodist  cause.  He  lived  to  an  advanced  age, 
and  died  on  December  28,  1835,  "expressing  an  unshaken 
confidence  in  God."  The  late  Justice  McLean,  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States,  knew  him  long  and  loved 
him  well.  His  sketch  of  the  life  of  Philip  Gatch  is  a  beauti- 
ful tribute  by  one  of  the  world's  great  men  to  one  whom  the 
world  held  in  little  estimation.  It  closes  with  these  impressive 
sentences:  "  In  matter  and  manner  Mr.  Gatch  was  one  of  a 
class  of  preachers  who  laid  the  foundation  of  Methodism  in 
America.  They  were  not  learned,  in  their  own  estimation  or 
in  the  estimation  of  the  world.     They  were  educated  in  the 


118  American  Methodism 

school  of  Christ,  but  beyond  this  their  qualifications  scarcely 
surpassed  those  of  the  fishermen  and  publicans  who  first 
preached  the  Gospel  in  Judea.  They  wore  the  Christian  ar- 
mor and  were  deeply  imbued  with  the  Christian  spirit.  They 
were  despised  and  condemned  for  their  presumption  and  ig- 
norance. Perhaps  not  one  of  them  could  form  a  syllogism 
nor  argue  within  the  most  approved  rules  of  logicians.  But 
they  went  forth,  not  in  their  own  strength,  but  in  the  strength 
of  Him  who  often  chooses  the  weak  things  of  the  world  to 
confound  the  things  of  the  mighty.  They  went  forth,  and 
their  cry  was  heard  through  the  land.  They  preached  in  the 
open  air,  in  barns,  and  wherever  the  people  would  come  to- 
gether. They  were  sensible  of  their  deficiencies,  and  had  no 
confidence  in  their  own  unassisted  powers.  They  did  not 
aim  to  preach  great  sermons,  but  sermons  that  would  reach 
the  heart  and  reform  the  life.  And  God's  blessing  rested  on 
their  labors,  and  the  Church  has  gratefully  embalmed  'their 
memories.'" 


CHAPTER  XIII 
Under  Gathering:  War  Clouds 

Opposition  to  the  English  Preachers. — General  View,  1773-1776.— 
The  Conferences  of  1774  and  1775.— Asbury.  — Henry  Dorsey 
Gough.  -Persecution. -Recruits  from  Abroad.  -American  Vol- 
unteers.—Williams  and  Embury. 


THE  English  preachers  who  set  out  from  Philadelphia  at 
the  close  of  the  Conference  of  1773,  determined  to 
know  nothing  among  the  Americans  save  Christ  and 
him  crucified,  were  beset  with  unusual  difficulties  even  for 
Methodist  itinerants,  who,  in  those  early  days,  could  usually 
reckon  on  the  bitter  opposition  of  at  least  two  classes  in  the 
community — the  openly  wicked  and  the  official  represent- 
atives of  the  Established  Churches.  The  resentment  of  the 
colonists  against  Great  Britain  for  her  stepmotherly  treat- 
ment of  her  American  children  had  already  provoked  bloody 
collisions  in  New  York  and  Boston,  and  at  every  rural  meet- 
inghouse and  crossroads  tavern,  as  well  as  in  Faneuil  Hall 
and  the  House  of  Burgesses,  the  village  Hampdens  were 
denouncing  the  tyranny  of   King  George. 

It  is  probable  that  this  excited  feeling  was  not  the  least  of 
the  considerations  which  hastened  the  decision  of  Boardman 

and  Pilmoor  to  turn  their  backs  upon  America  as  early  as 

119 


120  American  Methodism 

1774.  As  the  clouds  grew  darker,  however,  the  other  mis- 
sionaries found  their  usefulness  so  impaired  that  they,  too, 
chose  to  retire  from  their  promising  field  of  activity,  until  only 
one  English  preacher,  Francis  Asbury,  a  man  without  a 
country,  save  an  heavenly,  remained  to  link  the  Methodism 
of  the  revolted  colonies  with  that  of  Great  Britain. 

During  the  three  years  which  followed  the  first  Conference 
the  progress  of  American  Methodism  was  slow,  but,  consider- 
ing the  agitated  condition  of  the  public  mind,  remarkably 
steady.  This  is  clearly  shown  by  the  Conference  Minutes. 
Perhaps  the  universal  belief  in  an  impending  war  helped  the 
itinerant  evangelists  in  forcing  upon  the  people  the  necessity 
of  making  their  peace  with  God,  for  it  is  certain  that  the  first 
great  and  protracted  revival  season  in  the  history  of  American 
Methodism  began  in  Virginia  in  1775,  when  every  "breeze 
which  swept  down  from  the  north  brought  with  it  the  clash 
of  resounding  arms." 

The  Conferences  were  held  annually  in  Philadelphia,  the 
preachers  stationed,  and  the  few  necessary  rules  enacted  for 
the  direction  and  support  of  the  slowly  increasing  corps  of 
preachers.  A  few  facts  from  the  scanty  Minutes  of  the  Con- 
ferences, together  with  notes  from  the  diaries  of  several  of 
the  chief  actors  in  these  events,  comprise  the  sole  data  of  the 
history  of  the  work  in  these  trying  times. 

The  second  Conference  of  the  American  preachers  sat  in 
Philadelphia  on  May  25  to  27,  1774,  the  general  assistant, 
Rankin,  presiding  as  Wesley's  representative.  The  reports 
from  the  circuits  showed  the  effect  of  a  year  of  Rankin's 
rigorous  administration  of  the  discipline  and  of  Asbury's 
policy  of  securing,  to  use  his  suggestive  phrase,  "a  circula- 
tion of  the  preachers."  The  circuits  had  risen  from  six  to 
ten,  and  the  membership  had  nearly  doubled.      The  "  mini- 


Conferences  and  Statistics  121 

bers  in  society  "  reported  :  New  York,  222  ;  Philadelphia,  204  ; 
New  Jersey,  257;  Baltimore,  738;  Frederick,  175;  Chester, 
36;  Kent,  150;  Norfolk,  j^,;  Brunswick,  218;  total,  2,073. 
Rankin  records  his  satisfaction  with  the  proceedings,  but 
Asbury  gives  hints  of  a  determined  opposition  to  the  rules 
whose  enforcement  was  so  dear  to  him.  It  was  now  enacted 
that  each  circuit  should  provide  a  horse  for  the  preacher  in 
charge,  for  the  Methodist  itinerant  of  those  primitive  days 
spent  more  time  in  the  saddle  than  under  a  roof.  The 
"quarterage"  or  salary  of  each  circuit  preacher  was  fixed  at 
,£6,  Pennsylvania  currency,  and  traveling  expenses.  The 
general  assistant,  when  he  had  a  regular  appointment,  must 
be  supported  by  those  circuits  on  which  he  should  labor.  A 
general  collection  was  ordered  to  be  taken  at  Easter  for  pay- 
ing chapel  debts  and  relieving  needy  preachers..  The  last 
rule  shows  how  rapidly  the  great  wheel  revolved  in  those 
days — "  all  the  preachers  to  change  at  the  end  of  six  months," 
except  the  favored  brethren  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
who  were  to  interchange  stations  twice  as  frequently. 

The  third  Conference  met  at  Philadelphia  May  17,  1775. 
A  year  of  alarms  had  just  culminated  in  the  battle  begun  at 
Lexington  and  endinir  at  Concord.  The  reverberation  of 
"the  shot  heard  round  the  world"  was  hurrying  the  patriot 
volunteers  to  the  American  camps  at  Cambridge.  The  tumult 
of  the  times  disturbed  the  quiet  of  St.  Geoi-ge's.  Rankin 
notes  the  anxiety  of  the  preachers  over  the  critical  situation 
of  affairs,  and  says,  "Our  joy  in  God  would  have  been  abun- 
dantly more  had  it  not  been  for  the  preparations  of  war  that 
now  rung  throughout  the  city."  The  total  membership  re- 
ported was  3,148,  an  increase  of  1,075.  Nineteen  preachers 
were  stationed,  several  recruits  having  ventured  out  from 
England  and  a  few  volunteers  coming  up  from  the  country. 


122 


American  Methodism 


The  Conference  fixed  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  for  the 
continuance  of  peace  and  the  establishment  of  prosperity  in 
the  colonies*  The  day  chosen  was  July  i8,  but  before  that 
day  came  round  the  patriots  of  New  England  had  made  their 


FROM  AN   ENGRAVING    BY    LODGE  AFTER   THE    DRAWING   BY   MILLAR 


THE   ATTACK    ON    BUNKER    HILL. 


gallant  stand  at  Bunker  Hill,  and  in  another  twelvemonth  the 
Conference  city  was  ringing  with  the  news  that  the  American 
colonies  had  declared  themselves  "free  and  independent 
States."  These  events  were  fraught  with  impoi-tance  to  the 
Methodists.  But  no  prophet  yet  could  foresee  the  outcome 
— that  American  independence  would  carry  with  it  the  inde- 
pendence of  American  Methodism  and  the  transformation  of 
the  nondescript  religious  societies  into  a  centralized  and 
powerful  Church. 

From  his  arrival  in  1773  until  the  work  was  thrown  into 
disorder  by  the  war  Thomas  Rankin  continued  in  the  general 
superintendency  of  the  American  societies.      A   few  months 


The  General  Assistant  123 

in  each  year  he  served  the  New  York  and  Philadelphia  peo- 
ple as  their  preacher,  and  the  rest  of  his  time  was  occupied 
in  traveling  through  the  connection,  attending  quarterly  meet- 
ings, enforcing  the  discipline,  and,  as  in  the  case  of  Gatch, 
never  forgetting  to  levy  reinforcements  for  his  itinerant  army. 
He  was  not  widely  popular  as  a  preacher  or  among  the  preach- 
ers, being  considered  deficient  in  some  of  the  genial  and 
brotherly  qualities  so  desirable  in  one  of  his  calling.  A  very 
sober  and  steady  man,  he  was  strict  himself  and  quick  to 
bring  an  offender  to  book.  On  his  first  visit  to  New  York  he 
was  "horrified  by  the  extravagance  of  the  dress  of  the 
women,  and  could  not  help  thinking  that  so  much  pride  and 
luxury  must  be  the  harbinger  of  some  fearful  judgment." 
As  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather  and  other  leaders  of  the  New 
England  pulpit  had  always  regarded  the  Indian  wars  and 
other  calamities  as  judgments  upon  the  people  for  their  sins, 
so  did  Rankin  account  for  the  Revolution  as  a  just  retribu- 
tion for  the  sins  of  the  Methodists  and  other  people  of  the 
day. 

Leading  spirits  in  the  society  in  John  Street  had  quarreled 
with  Asbury,  and  had  threatened  "to  shut  the  church  door 
against  Rankin  "  should  he  be  as  zealous  as  Asbury  for  the 
letter  of  the  Wesleyan  law.  But  the  threat  was  abandoned. 
He  had  large  congregations  there,  and  speaks  of  a  love  feast 
at  which  "some  of  the  poor  black  people  spoke  with  power 
and  pungency  of  the  loving-kindness  of  the  Lord.  If,"  he 
concludes,  "the  rich  in  this  city  were  as  much  devoted  to 
God  as  the  poor  are,  we  should  see  wonders  done." 

Though  as  yet  but  a  private  in  the  ranks,  one  figure  which 
emerges  from  the  obscurity  of  this  period  is  Francis  Asbury. 
His  unreserved  devotion  to  the  work  and  his  irrepressible 
energy  bring  him  constantly  to  view.     Appointed  in  1773  to 


124  American  Methodism 

Baltimore  Circuit,  though  greatly  embarrassed  by  ill  health, 
he  continued  to  preach  at  his  twenty-four  appointments,  and 
to  enforce  the  Wesleyan  Rules  except  where  he  was  con- 
fronted by  the  inflexible  Strawbridge,  who  had  received  his 
commission  from  no  Conference  and  acknowledged  no  su- 
perior. Chills  and  fever,  sermons  sometimes  to  the  number 
of  four  a  day,  long  journeys  in  saddle  or  chaise  over  rough 
roads  in  wretched  weather,  the  erection  of  new  chapers  in 
Baltimore,  the  adjusting  of  the  societies  and  classes — these 
things  occupied  the  chief  preacher  on  Baltimore  Circuit  in 
the  winter  of  1 773-1 774.  "Though  my  body  has  been  in- 
disposed," wrote  the  Spartan,  "  the  grace  of  God  has  rested 
on  my  soul."  Throngs  came  to  hear  him.  The  city  clergy- 
men recognized  his  native  gifts,  and  Swoop  and  Otterbein, 
the  Lutheran  ministers,  sought  his  friendship  and  adopted 
his  methods. 

In  one  year  on  his  circuit  this  young  evangelist  doubled 
the  membership,  built  five  chapels,  and  opened  so  many  new 
appointments  that  when  he  left  it  four  circuits  were  created 
from  its  territory — Baltimore,  Baltimore  Town,  Frederick, 
and  Kent,  which,  together,  required  the  services  of  eight 
preachers.  One  of  his  last  acts  in  the  Conference  year  was 
to  lay  the  corner  stone  of  the  historic  chapel  in  Lovely  Lane, 
in  Baltimore,  on  April  18,  1774,  under  whose  roof  ten  years 
later  the  Christmas  Conference  was  to  organize  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  and  to  consecrate  himself  as  one  of  its  first 
bishops. 

The  next  year  was  a  trying  one  for  Asbury.  The  Confer- 
ence sent  him  to  New  York,  where  a  faction  in  the  society 
was  bitterly  opposed  to  his  administration.  His  wretched 
health  at  times  silenced  him,  and  forced  upon  him  an  inac- 
tivity that  was  to  him  the  chief  of  torments.     Late  in  the  year 


Asbury  on  His  Circuits  125 

he  was  transferred  to  Philadelphia,  but  not  until  the  spring 
of  1775,  when  he  returned  to  his  old  friends  in  Baltimore, 
did  he  recover  his  strength  sufficiently  to  throw  himself  into 
the  harness  with  somewhat  of  the  old  vigor.  He  preached 
with  great  success,  and  the  classes  were  recruited  with  white 
and  blaek — with  negro  bond  servants  and  with  representatives 
of  the  first  families  of  the  province. 

On  the  last  day  of  April,  1775,  news  came  to  Asbury  in 
Baltimore  of  the  armed  resistance  of  Massachusetts  men  to 
the  king's  troops  at  Concord  Bridge.  English  born  though 
he  was,  his  Journal  eontains  not  a  word  of  partisan  tenor. 
The  King  of  heaven  was  more  to  him  than  the  Hanoverian, 
and  his  only  comment  on  this  open  rebellion  against  King 
George  is,  ' '  Surely  the  Lord  will  overrule  and  make  all  these 
things  subservient  to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  Church." 

Norfolk,  Va.,  wdiere  Pilmoor,  Williams,  "YVatters,  and  others 
had  labored  in  former  years,  was  Asbury's  appointment  in 
1 775—1 7/6.  His  orderly  nature  was  aghast  at  the  condition 
in  which  he  found  the  society.  The  class  meetings  were 
neglected,  the  rules  of  class  and  society  disregarded,  and  the 
preaching  place  a  tumble-down  playhouse.  Though  still  far 
from  well,  he  contrived  to  make  the  round  of  his  appointments, 
to  start  a  building  fund  for  a  chapel,  and  to  enforce  the  dis- 
cipline. "  Some  of  the  members  seemed  a  little  refractory" 
..."  but  without  discipline  we  should  soon  be  as  a  rope  of 
sand,  it  must  be  enforced,  let  who  will  be  displeased."  Be- 
fore the  end  of  his  first  quarter  at  Norfolk  there  came  a  letter 
from  his  chief,  Thomas  Rankin,  informing  him  that  he,  with 
others  of  the  missionaries,  "had  deliberately  concluded  to 
return  to  England."  Not  so  lightly  was  this  steward  to 
abandon  his  Master's  vineyard.  "  I  can  by  no  means  agree 
to  leave  such  a  field  for  gathering  souls  to  Christ  as  we  have 


126  American  Methodism 

in  America.  It  would  be  an  eternal  dishonor  to'the  Metho- 
dists that  we  should  all  leave  three  thousand  souls  who  desire 
to  commit  themselves  to  our  care ;  neither  is  it  the  part  of  a 
good  shepherd  to  leave  his  flock  in  time  of  danger ;  therefore 
I  am  determined,  by  the  grace  of  God,  not  to  leave  them,  let 
the  consequence  be  what  it  may.  ...  So  I  wrote  my  senti- 
ments to  Mr.  Thomas  Rankin  and  Mr.  George  Shadford." 

The  events  of  autumn  brought  the  war  to  his  very  door, 
and  he  reluctantly  left  his  people  at  Norfolk  to  go  to  Bruns- 
wick Circuit,  through  a  region  resounding  with  alarms.  A  few 
weeks  later  Norfolk  was  burned  by  the  Tories,  and  the  prog- 
ress of  Methodism  in  the  place  rudely  checked.  In  February, 
1776,  in  obedience  to  Rankin's  summons,  Asbury  left  Vir^ 
ginia,  "which  pleased  him  in  preference  to  all  other  places" 
that  he  had  seen,  and  in  due  time,  "by  the  good  providence  of 
God,"  arrived  at  Baltimore,  where  his  weary  frame  succumbed. 
There  he  rested  while  the  fourth  Conference  was  held,  May, 
1776. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Asbury's  Coming:  to  the  Front 

Thk  Colonial  Aristocracy.— Henry  Dorsey  Gough. — Persecution. 
—Recruits  from  Abroad.-  American  Volunteers. — Death  of 
Williams  and  Embury. 

THE  impression  that  primitive  Methodism  made  eon- 
verts  only  among-  the  lowly  is  far  from  true.  Be  it 
said  to  its  glory  that  the  common  people  heard  its 
Gospel  gladly,  but  it  is  likewise  true  that  in  England  and  in 
America  its  adherents  numbered  not  a  few  of  gentle  blood 
and  social  eminence.  This  was  notably  the  case  in  the 
southern  colonies,  where  Methodism  wore  the  guise  of  a 
society  of  the  pious  within  the  Church  of  England,  to  which 
communion  the  colonial  aristocracy  belonged. 

Henry  Dorsey  Gough  was  one  of  the  colonial  gentry  who 
early  joined  the  Methodists.  He  was  a  Marylander  of  wealth 
and  position.  His  country  seat,  Perry  Hall,  a  dozen  miles 
from  Baltimore,  was  regarded  as  the  most  elegant  estate  in 
the  province.  His  wife,  a  daughter  of  Governor  Ridgeley,  was 
the  worthy  mistress  of  such  a  mansion.  For  the  diversion 
of  a  gay  company  at  his  country  seat  he  took  them  on  one 
occasion    to    hear    the    latest    novelty — a   Methodist    parson. 

The  preacher  was   Francis  Asbury,  and  his  message  carried 

127 


128 


American  Methodism 


conviction  to  the  rich  man's  heart.  The  buoyant  faith  of  one 
of  his  own  slaves  taught  him  that  there  were  joys  that  wealth 
could  not  buy.  On  his  knees  in  his  chamber  he  found  par- 
don and  peace,  and  boldly  proclaimed  to  the  revelers  of  his 
house-party :  "  I  have  found  the  Methodists'  blessing !     I  have 


PKRKY    HALL    IN     190O. 

The  mansion  of  Henry  Dorsey  Gough,  situated  twelve  miles  from  Iialtimoreon  the  Belair  Road.     The 
house  has  been  rebuilt  since  its  partial  destruction  by  fire  about  1825. 

found  the  Methodists'  God!"  His  gentle  wife,  whose  pious 
inclinations  he  had  hitherto  restrained,  now  joined  the  society 
with  him.  On  their  private  grounds  they  erected  a  chapel, 
which  they  furnished  with  a  bell — the  first  Methodist  bell  in 
America.  Perry  Hall,  as  we  may  well  imagine,  was  now 
always  open  for  the  weary  itinerants  and  many  of  them 
preached  in  its  chapel,  where  the  "hands"  were  assembled 
daily  for  morning  and  evening  prayer.      In  the  absence  of  a 


Gough  of  Perry  Hall  129 

preacher  the  governor's  daughter  herself  would  read  a  chap- 
ter, give  out  a  hymn,  and  engage  in  prayer.  The  noble  wife 
continued  a  consistent  Christian.  Her  husband  for  a  number 
of  years  returned  to  his  former  worldly  life,  but  in  1800  As- 
bury  brought  him  again  to  a  sense  of  his  hopeless  condition 
and  he  again  joined  the  Methodists,  never  to  leave  them.  At 
his  death,  in  1808,  Asbury  was  present  to  comfort  him.  The 
members  of  the  General  Conference,  which  was  then  in  ses- 
sion at  Baltimore,  walked  in  procession  at  his  funeral.  Bishop 
Asbury,  who  had  twice  led  Harry  Gough  out  from  the  worldly 
temptations  that  beset  him,  and  who  had  been  the  most  wel- 
come guest  in  the  mansion  to  which  the  elite  of  Maryland 
were  proud  to  be  bidden,  described  his  departed  friend  as  "a 
man  much  respected  and  beloved  ;  as  a  husband,  a  father,  and 
a  master  well  worthy  of  imitation ;  his  charities  were  as  nu- 
merous as  proper  objects  to  a  Christian  were  likely  to  make 
them  ;  and  the  souls  and  bodies  of  the  poor  were  administered 
to  in  the  manner  of  a  Christian  who  remembered  the  precepts 
and  followed  the  example  of  his  divine  Master." 

Three  years  saw  great  changes  in  the  personality  of  the 
Conference.  Young  men  came  into  the  field  for  a  quarter  or 
a  year  and  as  quickly  dropped  out.  The  heartstrings  of  the 
English  preachers  were  ever  drawing  them  toward  home  and 
kindred,  and  every  year  before  the  war  some  yielded  to  their 
inclinations  and  their  fears.  A  few  of  the  men  hastily  taken 
up  to  meet  the  urgent  call  for  more  preachers  proved  un- 
worthy and  we're  dropped  from  the  societies.  Of  the  ten 
men  stationed  by  the  first  Conference,  1773,  only  four — 
Rankin,  Asbury,  Shadford,  and  Watters — remained  on  the 
rolls  at  the  fourth  Conference,  1776,  when  twenty-four  men 
received  appointments.  Of  the  others,  Wright  had  left  the 
country,  Whit  worth   had   backslidden,   King  had  married — 


130 


American  Methodism 


which  was  then  synonymous  with  withdrawing  from  the 
traveling  ministry — Williams  had  died,  Yearbry's  name  had 
unaccountably  disappeared,  and  Strawbridge  was  left  tem- 
porarily without  appointment. 

The  recruits  of  these  years  were  chiefly  "raised  up"— as 
the  phrase  ran— from  the  American  societies,  though  a  few 
Old  World  Methodists  still  found  heart  to  face  the  rumors  of 


FMOTOGRAPH. 


THE    SLAVE    JAIL,    PERRY    HALL. 

Erected  in  1770  by  Henry  Dorsey  Gough.    Tradition  says  that  the  prayer  of 
the  slave  who  led  Gough  to  Christ  was  offered  in  this  building. 

war  and  remain  steadfast  to  their  vows.  Of  the  ten  new 
names  in  the  Conference  roll  of  1774  a  large  proportion 
were  Americans.  Three  of  the  five  accessions  of  the  next 
year  were  Englishmen.  With  the  outbreak  of  hostilities 
most  of  the  veterans  retired,  and  after  1776  the  Conference 
was  very  largely  composed  of  native  Americans,  although 
then,  as  now,  some  of  the  best  workers  in  this  section  of 
Methodism  were  of  British  and  Irish  origin. 

Philip  Gatch  is  the  best  known  of  the  American  preachers 
who  joined  the  Conference  in  1774.  With  him  came  other 
Marylanders:    Philip   Ebert,   who   was    corrupted    by  Whit- 


New  Members  of  Conference  131 

worth  and  after  a  year's  service  fell  away  to  Universalism  ; 
Richard  Webster, one  of  Strawbridge's  converts  ;  and  "honest, 
simple"  Daniel  Ruff,  of  Harford  Comity,  who  was  the  hist 
native  American  preacher  stationed  in  New  York  city;  Isaac 
Rollins,  of  Maryland,  and  William  Duke  also  began  to  travel 
in  this  year,  as  did  John  Wade,  perhaps  a  Virginian.  The 
three  recruits  from  abroad  were  Samuel  Spragg,  probably  an 
Englishman,  and  two  Irish  preachers — Edward  Drumgoole,  a 
converted  papist,  and  Robert  Lindsay,  who  soon  wrent  back 
to  Europe. 

In  1775  the  name  of  Richard  Owen,  or  Owings,  the  first  or 
one  of  the  first  local  preachers  raised  up  in  America  as  the 
result  of  Strawbridge's  labors,  now  finds  a  place  on  the 
roll  of  Conference  as  a  temporary  supply.  John  Cooper, 
whose  father  had  thrown  a  shovel  of  hot  embers  upon  him 
because  he  found  him  at  prayer,  was  recommended  by  Gatch 
and  enlisted  for  a  long  and  useful  term  of  service.  In  this 
year  Wesley  sent  out  two  more  of  his  lay  preachers — James 
Dempster,  an  Edinburgh  man,  who  soon  went  over  to  the 
Presbyterians,  and  Martin  Rodda,  whose  indiscreet  circula- 
tion of  royal  proclamations  gave  color  to  the  charge  that  the 
Methodists  were  secret  emissaries  of  the  British  crown.  He 
had  to  flee  for  his  life  to  the  protection  of  a  British  gunboat, 
and  then  to  England,  to  the  relief  of  patriotic  Americans. 
William  Glendenning,  a  dreamy  Scot,  was  the  fifth  in  the  class 
of  1775.  His  mind  ultimately  gave  way.  He  "lost  his  light," 
as  the  phrase  of  the  early  Methodists  ran,  and  after  eight  or 
ten  years  ceased  to  travel. 

While  Asbury  was  in  southeastern  Virginia  in  the  fall  of 
1775  it  became  his  sad  duty  to  preach  the  funeral  sermon  of 
Robert  Williams.  This  zealous  worker,  "  the  first  Wesleyan 
evano-elist  who  came  to  the  assistance  of  the  Methodists  in  this 


132  American  Methodism 

country,"  this  shrewd  Methodist,  whose  circulation  of  books 
and  tracts  long  antedated  the  founding  of  the  Book  Concern, 
had  recently  married  and  settled  in  Virginia,  near  Norfolk. 
He  was  the  first  of  the  itinerants  in  America  to  die,  excepting 
perhaps  the  Edward  Evans  of  whose  work  so  little  is  now 
known.      Asbury  said  of  Williams:  "He  has  been  a  very 


9  .4*^  «*-t^  *P  . 


RECEIPTS   OF  .EMBURY,    HECK,    AND   JARVIS. 

On  account  of  work  done  in  the  erection  of  the  first  preaching  place  in  John  Street,  New  York.     Re- 
produced from  the  original  entries  in  the  '*  Old  Book"  of  records. 

useful,  laborious  man,  and  the  Lord  gave  him  many  seals  to 
his  ministry.  Perhaps  no  one  in  America  has  been  an  in- 
strument of  awakening  so  many  souls  as  God  has  awakened 
by  him."  His  memory  deserves  a  lasting  memorial,  and  our 
denominational  gallery  contains  few  more  striking  pictures 
than  that  of  Robert  Williams,  on  the  evening  of  his  first  day 
ashore,  standing,  a  stranger  and  penniless,  on  the  steps  of  a 
vacant  dwelling  in  Norfolk  and  singing  a  hymn  from  his  little 


Death  of  Robert  Williams 


133 


sheep-bound  book.  He  was  known  from  New  York  to  the 
Carolinas,  but  it  was  to  Virginia  that  he  gave  most  labor,  and 
years  after  his  death  Jesse  Lee,  whose  family  Williams  had 


ORAWN  bj  *ARREN  B.    OAviS.  after  photographs. 

PHILIP    EMBURY'S   THREE    BURIAL   PLACES. 

First  resting  place,  Ashgrove,  N.  Y.  Embury's  monument,  Cambridge,  N.  Y. 

Site  of  old  Asbgrove  church. 

led  into  the  Methodist  fold,  wrote  of  him,  "  Although  he  is 
dead,  he  yet  speaketh  to  many  of  his  spiritual  children,  while 
they  remember  his  faithful  preaching  and  his  holy  walk." 


134  American  Methodism 

Philip  Embury,  too,  had  passed  from  earth  in  these  years. 
Since  his  removal  from  New  York  city  in  1770  to  the  little 
settlement  of  the  congenial  folk  in  Camden  Valley,  now  East 
Salem,  N.  Y.,  he  had  lived  there  as  a  farmer,  preaching 
occasionally,  and  forming  classes,  though  removed  from  the 
regions  which  were  visited  by  the  itinerant  preachers.  Here 
he  died,  in  August,  1773.  Nearly  sixty  years  afterward 
his  remains  were  disinterred  from  their  lonely  resting  place, 
on  the  Bininger  farm,  and  removed  to  Ashgrove,  where  he 
had  gathered  the  first  society  formed  north  of  New  York 
city.  An  eloquent  oration  was  pronounced  on  this  occasion 
by  the  Rev.  John  Newland  Maffitt.  In  1866  the  remains 
were  again  removed  and  placed  in  the  Gods  acre  at  Cam- 
bridge, N.  Y. 

The  monument  over  the  grave  of  the  carpenter  preacher 
bears  this  inscription : 

PHILIP     EMBURY 

The  earliest  American  Minister  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

here  found  his  last  earthly  resting  place 

Precious  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  is  the  death  of  His  saints. 

Born  in  Ireland,  an  Emigrant  to 

New  York,  Embury  was  the  first  to  gather 

a  class  in  that  city,  and  to  set 

in  motion  a  train  of  measures, 

which  resulted  in  the  founding  of 

John  Street  Church,  the  cradle  of  American 

Methodism,  and  the  introduction  of 

a  system  which  has  beautified  the 

earth  with  salvation  and  increased  the  joys 

of    Heaven. 


CHAPTER  XV 

"Tory!     Tory!" 

A  Significant  Blunder.— Grounds  for  Distrust  of  the  Metho- 
dists.—John  Wesley  Goes  into  Politics. — The  Calm  Address 
and  the  Turbulence  it  Evoked. — Truth  and  Error. — The 
Representative  American  Church. 


AT  the  close  of  a  Methodist  meeting  in  White  Plains, 
N.  Y.,  shortly  after  the  Revolution,  when  the  preach- 
er gave  the  usual  invitation  for  interested  persons  to 
meet  him  for  private  conversation,  among  those  who  remained 
was  an  old  gentleman  who  had  been  a  devoted  Loyalist 
throughout  the  war.  He  had  heard  that  the  Methodist 
preachers  were  secret  emissaries  of  King  George,  who  were 
now  intriguing  to  reestablish  the  British  dominion  here,  and 
he  wished  to  connect  himself  with  their  organization.  When 
he  found  that  what  he  had  mistaken  for  a  Tory  club  was  in 
fact  a  religious  society  he  took  his  hat  and  went  out,  saying, 
"  If  that  is  the  case,  I  am  done  with  you."  The  old  gentle- 
man's amusing  blunder  was  only  an  exaggeration  of  an  error 
which  many  persons  had  made  in  the  first  years  of  the  war, 
and  the  Methodists  had  to  take  pay  in  taunts,  threats,  and 
open  violence  for  the  doubtful  name   for  patriotism  which 

prejudice  had  thrust  upon  some  of  them. 

•35 


136  American  Methodism 

The  grounds  of  accusation  once  commonly  brought — that 
"all  the  Methodists  were  Tories" — are  plausible  enough,  and 
to  the  excited  vision  of  the  time  might  well  have  seemed  con- 
vincing. The  Methodist  societies  here  were  a  branch  of  a 
great  British  organization.  John  Wesley,  their  venerated 
head  and  accredited  spokesman,  had  publicly  defended  the 
cause  of  his  country  and  the  duty  of  nonresistance  in  Amer- 
ica. The  Wesleyan  leaders  in  America  were,  with  one  con- 
spicuous exception,  native  Englishmen,  and  were  recent  em- 
igrants, whose  hearts  were  still  in  the  old  country.  This 
was  notably  the  case  in  New  York,  from  which  town  Wes- 
ley heard  in  January,  1 779,  that  ' '  all  the  Methodists  there 
are  firm  for  the  government,  and  on  that  account  persecuted 
by  the  rebels,  only  not  to  the  death."  Even  where  the  mem- 
bership was  largely  American,  and  patriotic  at  heart,  many 
Methodists,  like  most  Quakers,  were  noncombatants  from 
principle,  and  could  not  with  a  good  conscience  bear  arms 
against  their  fellow-men. 

Thus  doubly  exposed  to  obloquy  by  reason  of  their  own 
scruples  and  their  intimate  relations  with  the  hostile  party  in 
England,  the  handful  of  American  Methodists — in  1775  they 
actually  numbered  but  one  in  a  thousand  of  the  inhabitants 
— were  subjected  to  such  inflammatory  slanders  as  the  fol- 
lowing, quoted  from  a  paper  dated  Baltimore,  May  4,  i777: 
"All  the  denomination  called  Methodists  are  enemies  to  our 
cause,  under  the  mask  of  religion,  and  are  countenanced  by 
the  Tories.  One  of  their  preachers  did  lately,  in  this  place, 
tell  his  hearers  that  every  man  killed  in  battle  would  surely 
go  to  hell." 

John  Wesley's'  unfortunate  excursion,  in  1775,  upon  the 
troubled  sea  of  British  politics  increased  the  perils  of  his  fol- 
lowers in  America. 


Wesley  and  the  Colonies 


137 


Despite  his  three-score  years  and  twelve  the  Methodist 
apostle  was  still  traversing  the  United  Kingdom  with  un- 
abated energy,  preaching,  holding  Conferences,  planting 
schools  and  founding  orphan- 
ages, and  pouring  forth  printed 
books  and  pamphlets  at  an  amaz- 
ing rate.  No  man  in  the  realm 
was  better  known  than  he ;  cer- 
tainly none  knew  the  masses  so 
well  or  exerted  such  a  direct  and 
salutary  influence  upon  their 
lives  and  opinions.  His  ac- 
quaintance with  the  state  of 
affairs  in  America,  through  fre- 
quent advices  from  his  traveling 
missionaries  there,  was  probably 
quite  as  thorough  as  that  pos- 
sessed by  the  ministers  of  the 
crown.  Moreover,  he  kept  close 
watch  of  public  matters  which 
bore  upon  his  work,  and  as  early 
as  1770  he  had  said,  "I  do  not 
defend  the  measures  which  have 
been  taken  with  regard  to 
America ;  I  doubt  whether  any 
man  can  defend  them,  either  on 
a  footing  of  law,  equity,  or  pru- 
dence." In  June,  1775,  when  the  tension  of  public  feeling 
was  extreme,  he  addressed  a  frank  letter  to  Lord  North  in 
which,  without  going  into  a  discussion  of  the  matter  in 
dispute  between  the  crown  and  the  colonists,  he  set 
forth,  in  words  which  now  read  like   a    prophecy,  the  dan- 


1   OLD  ENGLISH  ENGRAVING  8*    ROBERIS 


AN  AMERICAN    RIFLEMAN. 


138 


American   Methodism 


gers  into  which  an  American  war  would  plunge  the  British 

nation. 

As  the  crisis  approached  he  admonished    his    friends   in 

America  neither  to  defend  the  English  policy  nor  to  espouse 

the  grievance  of 
the  Americans,  but 
to  beware  of  en- 
trance into  the 
quarrel.  This  was 
the  burden  of  a  let- 
ter which  he  sent 
to  Thomas  Rankin 
in  March,  1775,  to 
be  circulated  among 
the  preachers.  In 
this  he  said  in  part : 

"My  dear 

Brethren: 
You  were  never  in 
your  lives  in  so 
critical  a  situation 
as  you  are  at  this 
time.  It  is  your 
part  to  be  peace- 
makers ;  to  be  lov- 
ing and  tender  to 
all :  but  to  addict 
yourselves  to  no  party.  In  spite  of  all  solicitations,  of  rough 
or  smooth  words,  say  not  one  word  against  one  or  the  other 
side.  Keep  yourselves  pure;  do  all  you  can  to  help  and 
soften  all ;   but  beware  how  you  adopt  another's  jar."' 

Parliament  now  declared  that  a  state  of  rebellion  existed 


I  010    PRINT. 


READING   THE    DECLARATION    OK    INDEPENDENCE. 


The  Calm  Address  139 

in  America.  The  nation  rang  with  excited  discussion,  and 
the  policy  of  the  government  was  hotly  denounced  by  a  large 
and  powerful  party.  At  this  juncture  Samuel  Johnson — the 
celebrated  essayist  and  lexicographer — came  to  the  defense 
of  the  ministry  with  his  pamphlet,  Taxation  no  Tyranny. 
The  learned  man,  who  stood  easily  at  the  head  of  English 
litterateurs,  was  an  arch  Tory,  and  his  attitude  toward  the 
colonists  may  be  inferred  from  his  deliverance  to  Boswell : 
"Sir,  they  are  a  race  of  convicts,  and  ought  to  be  thankful 
for  anything  we  allow  them  short  of  hanging."  His  pamphlet 
fell  into  Wesley's  hands,  and  its  weighty  arguments  con- 
vinced him  that  the  government  had  acted  within  the  bounds 
of  law  and  right.  Eager  to  diffuse  the  same  opinions  among 
his  followers,  he  abridged  Johnson's  pamphlet  into  a  four- 
page  leaflet  and  issued  it  from  the  Book  Room  as  A  Calm 
Address  to  Our  American  Colonies,  by  the  Rev.  John  Wesley, 
M.A. 

The  government,  delighted  by  the  accession  of  such  an 
ally,  bought  up  an  edition  of  the  tract,  and  had  it  given 
out  at  every  church  door  in  London.  Forty  thousand  copies 
were  scattered  through  the  realm  in  three  weeks.  It  was 
one  of  the  sensations  of  a  year  remarkable  for  great  events. 
Every  enemy  that  Wesley  had  made  in  years,  with  many 
friends  whom  this  publication  alienated,  joined  in  the  outcry 
against  him.  The  Calvinist  Toplady,  the  author  of  the  im- 
mortal "  Rock  of  Ages,"  led  a  pack  who  hounded  him  as  a 
plagiarist,  in  spite  of  Dr.  Johnson's  expressed  satisfaction 
with  Wesley's  use  of  his  arguments.  The  Liberals  declared 
that  he  had  written  "with  one  eye  upon  a  pension  and  the 
other  upon  heaven,"  and  it  was  hinted  that  his  compen- 
sation would  be  in  the  shape  of  a  bishop's  miter,  probably 
with  an  American  diocese. 


140 


American  Methodism 


These  baseless  slanders  hurt  no  one  except  their  reckless 
authors.  Nobody  believes  that  Wesley  was  plagiarist,  place- 
hunter,  or  political  turncoat,  and  all  good  men  regret  that  a 
man  like  Toplady  should  have  stooped  to  utter  such  scurril- 
ities.    When  Wesley  participated  in  this  controversy  the  New 

Englanders  had 
attacked  the  flagf 
of  his  country, 
and  however  ill- 
timed,  and  reck- 
less of  the  con- 
sequence to  his 
American  fol- 
lowers, his 
prompt  alliance 
with  the  govern- 
ment was  nat- 
ural, honorable, 
and  patriotic. 
The  Calm  Ad- 
dr.  samuel  johnson.  dress    to    Our 

American  Col- 
onies was  expressly  intended  for  circulation  in  England. 
But  the  uproar  which  it  begot  was  heard  beyond  the  sea,  and 
copies  of  the  little  firebrand  soon  followed.  When  they 
arrived  the  time  for  argument  had  passed,  and  instead  of 
serving  a  useful  purpose  here  Wesley's  tract  only  strength- 
ened suspicions,  already  current,  that  these  peculiar  religious 
meetings  of  the  Methodists,  which  were  addressed  from  time 
to  time  in  secret  session  by  traveling  Englishmen  of  uncler- 
ical  cut,  were  nurseries  of  treason. 

Wesley,  in  a  letter  to  Rankin,  was  disposed  to  think  that 


FROM   THE    ENGRAVING    I 


Wesley  in  Politics  141 

his  little  tract  had  been  misunderstood  and  its  effect  exag- 
gerated. There  "was  not  a  sharp  word  in  it,"  he  declared, 
yet  "  many  are  excessively  angry  and  would  willingly  burn 
me  and  it  together."  He  was  "all  for  love  and  tender  meas- 
ures," and  if  he  should  have  an  interview  with  a  great  per- 
sonage (Lord  North),  he  "would  tell  him  so  without  any  cir- 
cumlocution." 

Francis  Asbury,  who  was  on  the  ground  and  knew  the 
American  people,  probably  expressed  the  sentiment  of  the 
great  majority  of  his  colaborers  when  he  wrote  in  February, 
1776,  concerning  Wesley's  political  utterances:  "  I  am  truly 
sorry  that  the  venerable  man  ever  dipped  into  the  politics  of 
America.  However,  it  discovers  Mr,  Wesley's  conscientious 
attachment  to  the  government  under  which  he  lives.  Had 
he  been  a  subject  of  America,  no  doubt  he  would  have  been 
as  zealous  an  advocate  of  the  American  cause.  Some  incon- 
siderate persons  have  taken  occasion  to  censure  the  Metho- 
dists in  America  on  account  of  Mr.  Wesley's  political  senti- 
ments." 

We  regard  the  true  solution  of  Wesley's  attitude  toward 
the  American  Revolution  about  thus  :  He  saw  that  the  Amer- 
icans had  their  just  grievances,  and  believed  the  government 
at  home  was  unjust.  But  when  the  Revolution  broke  out, 
and  open  war  had  begun,  he  felt  that  he  must  be  true  to  his 
own  country,  and  believed  that  hostilities  on  the  part  of  the 
colonies  were  wrong.  In  due  time  he  became  convinced  that 
it  was  impossible  to  conquer  the  colonies,  and  that  their  in- 
dependence should  be  acknowledged.  From  that  moment 
his  sympathies  were  with  the  colonies. 

Much  has  been  published  on  both  sides  of  this  question. 
But  it  is  fairest  to  judge  Wesley  by  his  own  words,  which 
we  now  quote   from  the  most  important  communication  by 


142 


American   Methodism 


speech  or  pen  which  he  made.     It  is  a  letter  of  Wesley  bear- 
ing- date  June  14,   1775,  recently  discovered  by  the  Historical 


PHOTOGRAPHED  FROM   THE   COPV   IN   THE   LIBRARY  OF  OREW  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY. 

TITLE-PAGE  OF   WESLEY'S   "CALM  ADDRESS." 

Manuscripts  Commission  among  the  family  papers  of   the 
Earl  of  Dartmouth.     It  is  addressed  to  Lord  Dartmouth,   at 


Wesley  to  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth 


143 


that  time  secretary  of  state  for  the  colonies,  and  is  an  ener- 
getic and  passionate  protest  against  the  war  in  America. 
"All  my  prejudices,"  says  the  writer,  "arc  against  the 
Americans,  for  1  am  a  High  Churchman,  the  son  of  a  High 
Churchman,  bred  up  from  my  childhood  in  the  highest  notion 
of  passive  obedience  and  nonresistance.  And  yet,  in  spite  of 
all  my  rooted  prejudices,  I  cannot 
avoid  thinking,  if  I  think  at  all, 
that  an  oppressed  people  asked  for 
nothing  more  than  their  legal 
rights,  and  that  in  the  most  modest  J| 
and  inoffensive  manner  which  the  I 
nature  of  the  case  would  allow. 
But,  waiving  all  considerations  of 
right  or  wrong,  is  it  common  sense 
to  use  force  toward  the  •  Ameri- 
cans ?  "  Wesley  then  goes  on  to 
speak  of  "the  danger  to  be  appre- 
hended of  an  attack  from  abroad 
on  Ireland,  while  all  the  available 
British  forces  are  engaged  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic;"  relates  an  anecdote  to  show  how 
little  reliance  was  to  be  placed  upon  "our  valorous  militia;" 
draws  a  parallel  between  the  time  at  which  he  is  writing  and 
the  period  of  "  the  rebellion"  between  1640  and  1650,  as 
regards  "  dearness  of  provisions,  depression  of  trade,  and 
hatred  of  poor  for  the  rich; "and  concludes  with  the  impres- 
sive exhortation,  "  Remember  Rehoboam  ;  remember  Philip 
II;  remember  Charles  I!"  While  Wesley  was  penning  this 
remarkable  appeal  the  news  of  the  struggle  at  Lexington  and 
the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  on  its  way  to  England. 

The  absurd  idea  that  the  Methodist  body  was  a  Tory  propa- 


FROM    THE    ENGRAVING    BY    WARREN. 

THE    EARL   OF    DARTMOUTH. 

The  colonial  minister  to  whom  Wesley 
wrote  concerning  American  affairs. 


144  American  Methodism 

ganda  was  probably  limited  to  a  few  localities,  if  not  to  a  few- 
minds.  In  New  York  the  leading  members  were  thorough 
Loyalists,  many  of  them  being  recent  emigrants  from  the  old 
country.  Elsewhere  the  membership  was  divided  in  political 
sentiment,  as  were  all  communities  at  the  time.  There  were 
Loyalists  in  every  part  of  the  country.  Indeed  their  number 
and  prominence  were  but  now  beginning  to  be  recognized. 
But  among  the  Methodists  of  American  birth  the  proportion 
of  patriots  was  large.  "William  Watters,  Philip  Gatch, 
Richard  Ivy,  Joseph  Everett,  Thomas  Morrell,  Thomas  Ware, 
and  William  Mills — all  preachers  either  before  or  after  the 
war — were  true-hearted  Americans,"  and  some  of  them  fought 
in  the  ranks.  Francis  Asbury,  Englishman  though  he  was, 
and  resolute  to  do  or  say  nothing  which  could  injure  his  in- 
fluence as  a  Christian  missionary,  was  heard  to  say,  ' '  Eng- 
land alwayshad  the  wrong  foot  foremost  in  regard  to  America." 
He  was  the  leader  and  representative  man  among  the  Metho- 
dists after  the  withdrawal  of  his  English  brethren,  yet,  though 
often  under  great  provocation — being  hunted  like  a  convict 
for  a  time — his  course  was  manly  and  straightforward,  but 
always  adhering  to  his  principle  as  a  man  of  peace. 

After  the  fever  of  war  had  abated  Asbury's  broad-minded 
sympathy  with  the  struggle  of  the  Americans  was  recognized, 
and  the  old  slanders  died,  except  on  the  tongues  of  a  few 
who  used  the  old  poison  to  tip  their  theological  shafts  against 
the  conquering  advance  of  the  Methodist  hosts.  The  Church 
of  which  Francis  Asbury  now  became  the  official  head  and 
guiding  hand  was  among  the  first  to  catch  the  spirit  of  the 
new-born  republic.  It  was  among  the  first  to  address  its 
congratulations  to  George  Washington  as  the  first  President 
of  the  United  States.  It  drew  to  itself  great  numbers  of  Con- 
tinental veterans,  who  settled  the  New  West  at  the  close  of 


A    National  Church  145 

the  war.  Its  members  rapidly  won  political  preferment. 
From  the  War  of  Independence  until  now  the  great  eeclesi- 
astical  organization  which  has  grown  out  of  the  feeble  socie- 
ties of  1775  has  had  many  of  the  characteristics  of  a  national 
Church — the  most  numerous  and  perhaps  the  most  truly  rep- 
resentative body  of  Protestant  Christians  in  the  New  World. 
In  the  presence  of  more  than  a  century  of  such  a  record  of 
true  Americanism  we  need  not  hesitate  to  face  the  fact  that 
when  this  land  was  first  racked  by  a  civil  discord  a  few  Meth- 
odists of  English  birth  did  espouse  the  cause  of  their  king. 


CHAPTER   XVI 
The  Great  Virginia  Revival 

An  Unexpected  A  waken  i  no.— DevereuxJarratt.—  RobertWilliams 
and  His  Books.  —  Shadford's  Despondency.— The  Windows  of 
Heaven  Opened.  — A  Converted  Dancing-master.  —  Asbury's 
Review.— Rankin's  Observations. 

IN  the  latter  half  of  1775  and  the  spring  and  summer  of 
1776,  at  the  very  time  "when  the  English  missionaries 
were  beginning  to  waver  in  their  determination  to  re- 
main longer  among  the  rebellious  Americans,  an  extensive 
region  of  southeastern  Virginia  was  visited  by  an  extraor- 
dinary revival  of  religion.  It  was  the  first  of  those  wide- 
spread and  protracted  awakenings  which  have  at  rare  inter- 
vals marked  American  Methodist  history,  and  the  accounts 
which  have  come  down  to  us  of  its  origin,  growth,  and  the 
height  of  intensity  which  it  reached  are  at  once  complete 
and  authentic.  It  was  a  pentecostal  experience  long  remem- 
bered as  "the  Great  Revival  in  Virginia." 

The  most  complete  review  of  the  occurrences  is  given  in 
Asbury's  Journal  in  a  paper  communicated  to  him  by  the 
Rev.  Devereux  Jarratt,  the  Church  of  England  minister,  who 
was  himself  more  than  an  interested  spectator.  Jarratt  was 
a  native  Virginian,  and  a  man  of  rare  spiritual  gifts.     When 

he  became  a  rector  of  Bath  parish,  in  Dinwiddie  County,  in 

146 


The  Rector  of  Bath  147 

1763,  he  found  his  (lock  both  godless  and  ignorant.  Ik- 
doubted  "if  even  the  form  of  godliness  was  to  be  found  in 
one  family  of  this  large  and  populous  parish."  And,  shame 
to  tell,  he  knew  of  no  clergyman  out  of  the  ninety  or  more 
in  the  Old  Dominion  who  believed  or  preached  the  need  of 
personal  salvation.  "All  seek  their  own,  and  not  the  things 
that  are  Christ's,"  was  his  lament.  Only  seven  or  eight  per- 
sons partook  of  Communion  in  any  of  his  three  churches,  and 
his  evangelical  sermons  were  a  startling:  innovation. 

The  Rev.  Archibald  McRoberts,  the  rector  of  an  adjoining 
parish,  joined  him  in  his  evangelical  preaching  about  the  time 
when  Embury's  tongue  was  loosed  in  New  York  and  the  fire 
from  the  altar  touched  the  lips  of  farmer  Strawbridge  in  the 
clearings  beyond  the  Potomac.  Mr.  Jarratt  made  some  de- 
vice to  organize  his  converts  into  a  religious  society  for  their 
mutual  benefit  in  spiritual  things.  He  rode  a  circuit,  more- 
over, like  a  Methodist  preacher. 

At  this  critical  time  there  came  to  that  section  Robert 
Williams,  with  his  saddlebags  full  of  Methodist  tracts  and 
his  heart  and  soul  intent  upon  the  conversion  of  sinners. 
This  was  early  in  1773.  He  seemed  to  Jarratt  what  he  was — 
"a  plain,  artless,  indefatigable  preacher."  The  rector  took 
him  to  his  rectory  and  to  his  heart.  He  found  the  evangel- 
ist experienced  in  the  work  which  he  had  been  awkwardly 
attempting,  and,  being  persuaded  that  Methodism  meant 
rather  a  revival  within  the  old  Church  than  separation  from 
it,  he  welcomed  the  preachers  to  his  parish  and  encouraged 
the  formation  of  societies  on  the  Wesleyan  plan. 

A  number  of  societies  had  already  been  gathered  by  Wil- 
liams and  his  successors  when  the  Conference  of  1775  sent 
Shadford  to  travel  that  circuit.  This  itinerant  was  one  of  the 
most  faithful  and  loving  men  in  the  whole  field,  but  his  two 


148  American  Methodism 

years  in  America  had  not  been  conspicuously  successful,  and 
on  his  way  to  Virginia  he  was  much  dejected  in  spirit.  "  I 
saw  myself  so  vile  and  worthless  as  I  cannot  express,"  he 
says,  "and  wondered  that  God  should  employ  me."  But  the 
one  great  experience  of  his  life  awaited  him  here.  Jarratt 
had  been  "sensible  that  a  change  of  preachers  was  wanting," 
and  at  Shadford's  advent,  "while  their  ears  were  opened  by 
novelty,  God  sent  his  word  home  upon  their  heai'ts."  Con- 
viction was  general,  and  the  first  days  of  1776  were  a  season 
of  prayer.  People  of  all  ages  and  conditions  were  affected. 
Ten  or  twelve  would  yield  to  conviction  in  a  day.  The  fire 
ran  along  the  circuit  of  Shadford's  preaching  stations  for 
several  hundred  miles — into  Brunswick,  Sussex,  Lunenburg, 
Prince  George,  and  Amelia  Counties.  In  May  the  Methodist 
workers,  with  many  who  had  been  touched  in  heart,  gathered 
at  a  chapel  in  Jarratt's  parish  for  a  quarterly  meeting. 

The  love  feast  in  which  the  exercises  culminated  was  long 
famous  in  Methodist  story.  No  such  exhibition  of  exalted 
feeling  had  ever  been  known.  Shouts  and  moans  and  tears 
mingled  with  the  songs  and  prayers,  and  the  dispersing 
throngs  carried  the  fame  of  that  day  to  their  homes  for  many 
miles  around.  "Scarce  any  conversation  was  to  be  heard 
throughout  the  circuit  but  concerning  the  things  of  God." 
Even  the  gossips  were  busy  telling  how  this  one  could  not 
gain  the  sense  of  pardon,  while  that  other  had  "come 
through"  into  perfect  peace. 

The  sympathetic  rector  frankly  admits  that  on  such  occa- 
sions there  was  often  wildfire  mixed  with  the  sacred  flame, 
but  in  this  case  the  nervous  excitement  never  rose  to  any 
considerable  height,  nor  was  it  of  long  continuance.  In 
certain  meetings  there  were  not  that  decency  and  order  that 
he  could  have  wished.     Some  wept  for  grief,  others  shouted 


Soul-stirring  Scenes  149 

for  joy,  so  that  it  was  hard  to  distinguish  one  from  the  other 
till  the  voice  of  joy  prevailed  and  the  people  shouted  with  a 
great  shout,  so  that  it  might  be  heard  afar  off. 

An  eyewitness  of  that  pentecostal  love  feast  says :  ' '  As 
many  as  pleased  rose,  one  after  another,  and  spoke  in  few 
words  of  the  goodness  of  God  to  their  souls.  Before  three 
had  done  speaking  you  might  see  a  solemn  sense  of  the  pres- 
ence of  God  visible  on  every  countenance,  while  tears  were 
flowing  from  many  eyes.  When  the  passions  of  the  people 
were  rising  too  high,  and  breaking  through  all  restraint,  the 
preacher  gently  checked  them  by  giving  out  a  few  verses  of 
a  hymn.  Some  careless  creatures  of  the  politer  sort,  who 
would  needs  go  in  to  see  what  this  strange  thing  meant,  felt 
an  unusual  power,  so  that,  like  Saul  among  the  prophets, 
they  fell  down  upon  their  knees  and  cried  for  mercy  among 
the  rest." 

The  watch  service,  attended  by  upward  of  threescore  of  the 
most  zealous,  continued  until  two  hours  after  sunrise,  and 
was  accompanied  by  expressions  of  the  most  deeply  excited 
feeling.  "  Half  a  dozen  would  be  praying  at  once,  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  room,  for  distressed  persons,  while  others 
were  exhorting."  , 

Such  soul-stirring  scenes,  from  which  scores  of  men  and 
women  emerged  with  altered  purposes  and  new  aspirations, 
were  repeated  at  intervals  throughout  that  eventful  summer 
in  spite  of  the  semitropical  heats  and  the  surging  political 
emotions  of  the  people,  whose  delegates  had  just  taken  the 
momentous  step  of  declaring  the  Americans  independent  of 
British  rule.  Late  in  the  summer  a  Sussex  County  Church- 
man wrote:  "About  seven  years  I  have  been  exhorting 
my  neighbors,  but  very  few  would  hear.  Now,  blessed  be 
God,  there  are  very  few  that  will  not  hear.     It  is  common 


150  American  Methodism 

with  us  for  men  and  women  to  fall  down  as  dead  under  an 
exhortation,  but  many  more  under  prayer,  perhaps  twenty  at 
a  time.  And  some  that  have  not  fallen  to  the  earth  have 
shown  the  same  distress,  wringing  their  hands,  smiting  their 
breasts,  and  begging  all  to  pray  for  them." 

A  reckless  young  woman,  hearing  of  these  strange  prostra- 
tions, said  she  would  "come  to  the  meeting  and  help  them 
up."  She  came,  but  was  powerless  to  resist,  and  "soon  she 
wanted  helping  up  herself."  Meetings  lasted  from  midday 
to  midnight,  and  some  from  midnight  until  long  past  sunrise. 
Open  enemies  of  religion  and  "some  hoary-headed  ones  who 
had  been  strict  Pharisees  from  their  youth  up"  were  swept 
along  by  the  tide. 

A  dancing-master  in  a  scarlet  coat  came  to  one  of  Shad- 
ford's  week-day  meetings.  On  Sunday,  clad  in  more  sober 
green,  he  traveled  several  miles  to  hear  the  new  preacher. 
He  was  attentive,  and  brought  others  with  him.  One  day  a 
friend  said  to  Shad  ford:  "You  spoiled  a  fine  dancing-master 
last  week.  He  was  so  cut  under  preaching,  and  feels  such  a 
load  of  sin  upon  his  conscience,  that  he  moves  very  heavily ; 
nay,  he  cannot  shake  his  heels  at  all.  He  had  a  large  and 
profitable  school,  but  has  given  it  up  and  intends  to  dance  no 
more."  He  soon  afterward  opened  a  school  for  heads  instead 
of  heels,  and  became  a  devoted  Methodist. 

Some  time  after  the  excitement  had  subsided  Asbury  wrote 
an  account  of  the  revival  to  Wesley  in  England.  He  said 
that  when  Mr.  Shadford  went  in  discouragement  to  his  station 
on  the  extensive  Brunswick  Circuit  he  found  about  eight 
hundred  members,  all  told,  very  imperfectly  organized  and 
with  few  leaders.  The  evangelist  and  his  young  helpers  set 
about  speaking  individually  with  each  member  after  the  ser- 
mon, by  which  means  "  they  learned  more  of  our  doctrine  and 


Effusion  of  the  Spirit  151 

discipline  in  a  year  than  in  double  the  time  before,"  and  a  sea- 
son of  genuine  spiritual  refreshing  ensued.  It  was  some  time 
before  the  Rev.  Mr.  Jarratt  invited  Shadford  to  include  his 
parish  among  his  preaching  stations,  "but  in  a  few  months 
he  saw  more  fruit  of  his  labors  than  he  had  done  for  many 
years." 

Thomas  Rankin,  on  his  annual  tour  of  the  connection, 
came  into  Virginia,  and  recorded  in  his  Journal  some  of  the 
marvelous  scenes — marvels  even  to  this  veteran  evangelist 
who  had  seen  multitudes  of  curious  hearers  melt  in  the  flame 
of  Whitefield's  appeals.  On  the  last  day  of  June,  1776, 
saddle-weary  from  an  exhausting  journey  under  a  burning 
sun,  Rankin  was  gladdened  by  the  sight  of  his  dear  friend 
Shadford,  with  whom  he  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  three  years 
before.  Notwithstanding  his  fatigue  the  superintendent 
preached  twice  that  day  in  the  little  chapel.  At  the  afternoon 
service  the  room  was  thronged,  and  the  door  and  windows 
framed  masses  of  eager  faces,  white  and  black.  When  the 
preacher  began  to  bring  home  the  words  of  his  text  "  such 
power  descended  that  hundreds  fell  to  the  ground,  and  the 
house  seemed  to  shake  with  the  presence  of  God."  The  tide 
of  feeling  overflowed  the  sermon.  The  preacher  paused  in 
wonder  and  sat  down.  Shadford  was  awe-struck.  ' '  Husbands 
were  inviting  their  wives  to  go  to  heaven ;  wives  their  hus- 
bands, parents  their  children,  and  children  their  parents.  In 
short,  those  who  were  happy  in  God  themselves  were  for 
bringing  all  their  friends  to  him  in  their  arms." 

The  meeting-  began  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  that 
long  June  day,  and  this  "effusion  of  the  Spirit"  went  on 
until  dark.  The  assembly  was  moved  quite  beyond  the  power 
of  the  preachers  to  control,  and  their  voices  in  song  or  ex- 
hortation fell  on  heedless  ears.     That  day  week — the  week  of 


152  American  Methodism 

the  Declaration  of  Independence — Rankin  had  to  pause  in 
the  midst  of  his  sermon,  on  the  prophet's  vision  of  the  valley 
of  dry  bones,  to  beg  his  hearers  to  compose  themselves.  ' '  But 
they  could  not,"  he  says;  "some  on  their  knees  and  some  on 
their  faces  were  crying  mightily  to  God  all  the  time  I  was 
preaching.  Hundreds  of  negroes  were  among  them,  with 
the  tears  streaming  down  their  faces."  Thus  it  went  on  that 
evening  and  every  day  of  the  torrid  week  which  ensued. 
' '  It  seemed  as  if  all  the  country  for  nine  or  ten  miles  around 
were  ready  to  turn  to  God." 

At  the  Conference  of  1776  the  gain  of  membership  on 
Shadford's  circuit  amounted  to  over  eight  hundred  souls. 
The  movement  did  not  stop  with  the  Conference  session,  and 
was  not  bounded  by  the  limit  of  Shadford's  parish.  Asbury 
tells  us  that  it  spread  into  fourteen  counties  of  Virginia  as 
well  as  into  Bute  and  Halifax,  in  North  Carolina.  Led- 
num,  a  careful  student  and  antiquarian,  is  probably  within 
the  truth  when  he  asserts  that  the  number  of  souls  awakened 
in  Virginia  in  these  two  years  was  not  less  than  four  thousand 
— a  number  greater  than  the  total  membership  of  the  Metho- 
dist societies  in  America  as  recorded  in  the  Conference  Min- 
utes of  1775. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  Virginia  revival  was 
more  than  an  ebullition  of  emotion.  Among  the  persons  who 
became  Methodists  under  its  influence  was  Jesse  Lee,  the 
first  historian  of  the  Church,  the  apostle  of  free  grace  among 
the  New  England  believers  in  election  and  foreordination, 
and  one  of  the  most  useful  and  honored  of  its  ministers.  Nor 
is  it  to  be  judged  alone  by  such  conspicuous  examples  of 
Christian  living.  A  magistrate  told  Rankin  that  "  before  the 
Methodists  came  to  these  parts,  when  he  was  called  by  his 
office  to  attend  the  court  there  was  nothing  but  drunkenness, 


"No  Getting  Away  from  These  People"  153 

cursing,  swearing,  and  righting  most  of  the  time  the  court 
sat;  whereas  now  nothing  is  heard  but  prayer  and  praise, 
and  conversing  about  God  and  the  things  of  God." 

For  nearly  a  month  Rankin  rode  the  long  circuit  which  had 
rung  with  the  shouts  of  the  great  revival.  Every  day  he 
became  more  deeply  impressed  with  the  earnestness  of  the 
people.  His  plans,  which  were  already  forming  for  his  de- 
parture from  America,  must  have  been  sorely  shaken  at  sight 
of  fields  so  white  for  the  harvest.  "Indeed  there  was  no 
getting  away  from  these  people,"  he  says,  "while  I  was  able 
to  speak  one  sentence  for  God." 

In  the  closing  days  of  July  the  greatest  of  quarterly  meet- 
ings was  held.  A  throng  numbered  by  thousands  assembled 
from  all  parts  of  the  rural  circuit.  A  spacious  tabernacle, 
constructed  of  boughs,  furnished  refreshing  shelter.  The 
testimonies  in  the  solemn  love  feast  melted  hundreds  to  tears, 
while  others  cried  to  God  for  pardon  or  holiness.  Jarratt, 
the  friendly  rector,  preached  at  the  watch  meeting.  "Surely," 
concludes  the  sober-minded  Rankin,  "surely  for  the  wrork 
wrought  on  these  two  days  many  will  praise  God  to  all 
eternity." 


CHAPTER   XVII 
A  Son  of  Thunder 


The  Glory  of  Methodism.— Benjamin  Abbott.— His  Early  Life.— 
Conversion.  —  Characteristics  as  a  Preacher.  —  Intensity.  — 
Physical  Effects. — "The  slaix  lay  all  through  the  house." 
—Subsequent  Career. 

IT  was  the  glory  of  the  Methodist  revival  in  England  that 
it  preached  salvation  from  present  sin  not  less  than  from 
future  punishment.  Historians  with  no  prejudice  for 
relieion  have  noted  with  wonder  the  moral  reformation  which 
the  Wesleys  and  their  unlettered  preachers  wrought  among 
the  rough  laborers  in  the  northern  collieries,  in  the  clay  pits  of 
Staffordshire,  and  among  the  miners  and  smugglers  of  Corn- 
wall. The  lives  of  the  early  Wesleyan  preachers  abound  in  nar- 
ratives of  remarkable  conversions  of  notoriously  sinful  men. 
The  English  missionaries  brought  the  same  Gospel  across 
the  sea  and  proclaimed  it  everywhere  with  similar  results. 
Its  life-giving  influence  not  only  imparted  spirit  and  purpose 
to  such  moral  youths  as  William  Watters  and  Philip  Gatch, 
but  it  arrested  and  transformed  into  messengers  of  light  such 
mature  and  reckless  sinners  as  Benjamin  Abbott. 

Abbott  was  the  son  of  a  well-to-do  Pennsylvania  farmer. 
His  father  dying,  the  lad  was  apprenticed  to  a  hatter  in  Phila- 
delphia.     "I    soon    fell   into  bad   company,"  he    confesses, 

1 54 


A  Hard  Character 


155 


"and  from  that  to  card -playing",  cock  fighting,  and  many 
other  evil  practices" — no  uncommon  history  for  a  country 
lad  adrift  among  the  temptations  of  the  town.  Before  serv- 
ing out  his  time  he  abandoned  his  trade  and  became  a  farmer 
in  New  Jersey,  where  he  married  a  strict  Presbyterian  woman, 
and,   to   use    his   homely   phrase,    "a  great   meeting  body." 


from  a  photograph   furnished 


G.    EOKAROS. 


OLD   SOUTH    STREET    CHAPEL,    SALEM,    N.    J. 
Henjamin  Abbott  is  said  to  have  been  baptized  here. 

Though  he  called  himself  a  Presbyterian,  and  often  went  to 
church  with  his  wife,  his  life  was  scandalously  wicked.  His 
wife's  prayers  and  entreaties  and  his  own  occasional  good 
resolutions  wrought  no  permanent  reform,  and  he  was  known 
through  all  the  region  as  a  hard  drinker,  quarrelsome  in  his 
cups,  recklessly  profane,  and  one  who  gambled  away  his  sub- 
stance.    His  escapades  often  brought  him  before  the  courts, 


156  American  Methodism 

and  the  tradition  was  probably  not  without  foundation  that 
he  once  knocked  the  magistrate  off  the  bench,  saying,  "I 
might  as  well  be  hung  for  an  old  sheep  as  for  a  lamb." 

It  was  a  dark  time  respecting  experimental  religion. 
Shocking  indeed  is  the  commentary  upon  the  barren  theology 
of  the  day  that  the  husband  of  a  professed  Christian,  himself 
not  a  stranger  to  church  doors,  should  have  reached  his 
fortieth  year  without  having  ever  heard  of  the  nature  of  con- 
viction or  conversion,  or  of  anyone  saying  that  he  possessed 
the  pardoning  love  of  God  in  his  soul  or  knew  his  sins  for- 
given. Yet  this  is  precisely  Benjamin  Abbott's  confession, 
as  made  in  his  picturesque  autobiography. 

A  Methodist  sermon,  which  his  wife  induced  him  to  go  a 
dozen  miles  to  hear,  gave  him  "  awful  sensations  of  the  future 
state,"  and  set  him  to  studying  his  Bible  in  quest  of  some 
way  of  escape.  A  little  later  the  preacher  Abraham  Whit- 
worth,  a  young  Englishman,  with  a  gift  for  touching  the 
emotions,  held  meetings  near  the  farm  where  Abbott 
worked,  in  Pittsgrove  Township,  Salem  County,  N.  J.  This 
stirring  kind  of  preaching  attracted  multitudes,  Abbott 
among  the  rest.  The  arrow  went  straight  to  the  burly 
farmer's  heart.  "  I  cried  out  for  mercy, "  he  says.  "When 
the  sermon  was  over  the  people  flocked  round  the  preacher 
and  began  to  dispute  with  him  about  the  principles  of  re- 
ligion. I  said  there  never  was  such  preaching  as  this ;  but 
the  people  said,  '  Abbott  is  going  mad.'  " 

The  people  were  amazed  at  the  revolution.  The  strong 
man  was  now  under  deep  conviction  of  sin,  and  could  get 
no  sense  of  pardon.  Horrible  dreams  broke  his  rest.  His 
mind  was  disturbed  with  the  doctrine  of  election;  "  Satan 
suggested  that  I  was  one  of  those  damned  reprobates  that 
God  had  assigned  over  to  him  from  all  eternity,  and  however 


Save,   Lord,   or   I   Perish!" 


157 


I  might  cry  and  pray  he  was  sure  of  me  at  last."      In  despaii 
he  would    have    killed    himself,    but    dread  of    future  torment 
stayed   his   hand.      In   the   fields  and  woods   he  cried   aloud, 
"God  be  merciful 
to  me  a  sinner!"' 
He     thought    he 
must  have  died  if 
some     answer    to 
his  prayer  had  not 
come.      Still    he 
could  not  swallow 
his  dinner  for  his 
distress  of  mind. 
In  his  anguish 
he  took  his  little 
son  and  sought  a 
Methodist     meet- 
ing.     The    house 
was  crowded  and 
many    listeners 
stood  without. 
The  preacher's 
words  ran  through 
him  "from  head 
to  foot"  as  he  sat 
with   his   boy  on 
his   knee.       He 
would  have  risen 
and   gone   out,  to  conceal  the  tumult  of  his  emotions,  but 
his  limbs  had  lost  their  power,  and   he    cried   out,    "Save, 
Lord,  or    I    perish!"      The   crowd    of   disputing   Calvinists 
barred  his  way  to  the  preacher  after  the  sermon,  but  that 


,  -  •  mVMnm 


DRAAS   BY   G.   W1LLAR0   BONTE. 


d 


FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH    FuRN'SHED    6,     REV    J     G      EDWARDS 


THE   OLD    COURTHOUSE,    SALEM,    N.    J. 
Here  Daniel  Ruff  preached  the  first  Methodist  sermon  in  this  town. 


158  American  Methodism 

evening,  to  the  great  joy  of  his  good  wife,  he  set  tip  family 
prayer. 

The  next  Sabbath  the  Abbotts  followed  the  preacher  to 
his  appointment  a  dozen  miles  distant.  The  husband  spoke 
to  him  before  the  sermon,  told  him  his  distress,  and  asked  to 
be  baptized,  thinking  the  rite  would  make  him  better,  for  he 
had  as  yet  no  idea  of  pardon  through  faith  in  Christ. 

"Are  you  a  Quaker?"  asked  Whitworth — for  he  was  prob- 
ably the  preacher  mentioned. 

"No,"  replied  Abbott,  the  tears  streaming  down  his  sun- 
burned cheeks,  "I  am  nothing  but  a  poor,  wretched,  con- 
demned sinner." 

The  other  opened  to  him  the  plain  promise  of  the  Gospel, 
' '  saying  that  I  was  the  very  man  Christ  died  for  or  he  would 
not  have  awakened  me;  that  it  was  the  greatest  of  sinners 
Christ  came  to  save."  Mindful  of  his  outcry  on  the  former 
occasion,  Abbott  would  not  enter  the  preachinghouse,  but, 
standing  by  the  door,  heard  himself  "  prayed  for  particularly 
as  a  poor,  broken-hearted  sinner."  That  night,  after  dreams 
of  torment,  there  came  a  beautiful  vision  of  the  pardoning 
Christ,  in  which  the  Scriptures  were  wonderfully  opened  to 
his  understanding.  In  the  morning  his  troubled  soul  found 
peace. 

The  first  impulse  of  the  new  convert  was  to  tell  his  joys 
abroad.  But  his  Baptist  and  Presbyterian  neighbors  could 
not  understand  his  experience.  Some  laughed  at  him,  and 
the  report  spread  before  night  that  Abbott  was  raving  mad. 
Even  his  wife,  though  having  the  form  of  godliness,  disputed 
his  idea  that  none  could  have  saving  religion  without  knowing 
it,  and  the  village  dominie  loaned  him  choice  books  from 
his  Calvinistic  library  to  dispel  his  "  delusions  of  the  devil." 
For  a  moment  Abbott  wavered,  but  took  to  his  knees  by  the 


"The  Beginning  of  Days  to  Us"  159 

roadside,  and  his  prayer  of  faith  was  answered.  "  I  sprang 
to  my  feet,"  he  says,  "and  cried  out  not  all  the  devils  in  hell 
should  make  me  doubt ;  for  I  knew  that  1  was  converted. 
At  that  instant  I  was  filled  with  unspeakable  raptures  of 
joy." 

It  is  sad  to  have  to  relate  that  the  evangelist  whose  words 
had  saved  others  himself  became  a  "castaway."  Whit- 
worth,  whose  zeal  brought  Benjamin  Abbott  to  the  way  of 
life,  soon  fell  a  victim  to  intemperate  habits.  "Alas  for  that 
man!  He  had  been  useful,"  wrote  Asbury,  in  1774,  on  hear- 
ing the  lamentable  news,  "was  puffed  up,  and  so  fell  into  the 
snares  of  the  devil.  My  heart  pitied  him,  but  I  fear  he  died 
a  backslider." 

Abbott's  conversion,  strangely  enough,  at  first  caused  a 
difference  of  opinion  from  his  wife.  She  could  not  but 
observe  the  welcome  reformation  in  his  character,  but  her 
minister  assured  her  that,  far  from  being  born  again,  her 
husband  was  vainly  trying  to  win  heaven  on  the  strength  of 
good  works.  Abbott  meditated  day  and  night  upon  the  Bible, 
and  his  dreams  took  the  form  of  sermons.  But  when  he  told 
his  wife  of  his  conviction  that  he  should  one  day  be  a  preach- 
er she  taunted  him  with  his  uncouth  looks  and  his  ignorance 
of  Bible  truth.  Nevertheless,  at  home  and  among  his  neigh- 
bors he  continued  to  glorify  God  by  his  conversation  not  less 
than  by  his  walk. 

When  young  Philip  Gatch  came  into  New  Jersey  on  his 
first  preaching  tour  Mrs.  Abbott  heard  him  and  was  brought 
to  confess  her  sins  and  receive  pardon,  an  experience  which, 
good  Presbyterian  as  she  was,  she  had  never  before  known. 
Within  three  months  the  six  children  of  the  Abbotts  were 
converted,  the  youngest  being  a  child  of  seven  years.  ' '  These 
were  the  beginning  of  days  to  us,"  says  Abbott.      "  From 


160  American  Methodism 

this  time  we  went  on  hand  in  hand,  helping  and  building 
each  other  up  in  the  Lord." 

This  rough-handed  plowman  was  the  first  convert  in  New 
Jersey  who  became  a  preacher.  That  there  was  some  reason 
for  his  wife's  mockery  over  his  preaching  ability  may  be 
judged  from  Jesse  Lee's  statement  that  "he  was  a  great 
blunderer,  and  his  language  incorrect,  more  so  than  was 
common;"  yet  so  irresistible  was  his  conviction  of  the  power 
of  God  in  Christ  to  forgive  sin,  and  so  earnest  and  imagina- 
tive his  appeals,  that  as  an  evangelist  he  "was  one  of  the 
wonders  of  America."  At  first  as  a  class  leader  in  his  own 
vicinity,  later  as  a  local  preacher  with  a  wide  range  of  ap- 
pointments, and  after  1789  as  a  traveling  minister  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  he  became  one  of  the  most 
widely  known  figures  throughout  the  Methodist  Connection. 
His  original  sayings,  together  with  the  striking  character- 
istics of  his  personality  and  work,  are  among  the  heirlooms 
of  Methodism. 

The  book  of  the  acts  of  this  apostle  of  south  Jersey 
abounds  in  examples  of  his  bravery  and  devotion  and  of  the 
strange  scenes  which  often  accompanied  his  preaching. 

Having  heard  that  a  mob  at  Deerfield  had  a  kettle  of  tar 
ready  for  the  first  Methodist  preacher  who  should  come  there, 
Abbott  felt  called  to  go.  He  trembled  as  he  gave  out  the 
hymn  and  sang  four  lines  of  it  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  hostile 
throng.  But  in  prayer  "  the  power  of  God  fell  on  me  in  such 
a  manner  that  it  instantly  removed  from  me  the  fear  of  man, 
and  some  cried  out."  In  the  sermon  he  had  "great  liberty." 
Many  of  the  mob  shed  tears,  and  the  ringleader  himself  was 
impressed.  Thus  the  bold  Methodist  escaped  the  threatened 
coat  of  tar. 

In   response  to  the  prayer  of  a  circuit   preacher  Abbott 


A  Powerful   Preacher  161 

acquired  a  large  increase  of  spiritual  life.  After  the  words 
"Come,  Lord,  and  sanctify  me,  soul  and  body,"  he  declares, 
"  The  Spirit  of  God  came  upon  me  in  such  a  manner  that  I 
fell  flat  to  the  floor.  1  had  not  the  power  to  lift  hand  or 
foot,  nor  yet  to  speak  one  word;  I  believe  I  lay  half  an  hour, 
and  felt  the  power  of  God  running  through  every  part  of  my 
soul  and  body  like  fire,  consuming  the  inward  corruptions  of 
fallen  depraved  nature.  When  I  arose  and  walked  to  the 
door,  and  stood  pondering  these  things  in  my  heart,  it  ap- 
peared to  me  that  the  whole  creation  was  praising  God ;  it 
also  appeared  as  if  I  had  got  new  eyes,  for  everything  ap- 
peared new,  and  I  felt  a  love  for  all  the  creatures  that  God 
had  made,  and  an  uninterrupted  peace  filled  my  breast." 

That  intense  experience,  with  its  mysterious  physical  ac- 
companiments, he  saw  many  times  repeated  among  his  audi- 
tors. There  were  marvelous  displays  of  emotion,  and  men 
and  women  "cried  aloud"  and  "fell  on  the  floor."  The 
preacher's  own  fearful  experience. of  the  burdensomeness  of 
sin  gave  him  a  hold  upon  the  sinner.  Men  who  had  heard 
Abbott  swear  and  seen  him  fight  would  now  go,  out  of  curi- 
osity, to  hear  him  preach,  and  would  receive  a  dole  of  the 
living  bread.  Though  rude  of  speech,  as  the  critics  judged 
him,  no  hearer  misunderstood  his  message.  On  one  occasion 
a  score  of  listening  Indians  crowded  around  him,  with  tears 
in  their  eyes,  inquiring  what  they  should  do  to  be  saved. 
Once,  when  he  told  his  own  experience,  a  blasphemous  youth, 
called  "Swearing  Jack,"  declared,  "That  man  has  been  as 
bad  as  I,  and  if  he  has  found  peace,  why  may  not  I?"  It  was 
not  long  before  the  preacher  heard  his  testimony  in  public : 
"  Here  stands  Swearing  Jack;  but  God  has  pardoned  all  my 
sins!" 

Abbott's  record  of  his  preaching  excursions  is  rich  in  notes 


164  American  Methodism 

to  warn  sinners  before  I  die!'  I  then  took  my  stand  in  the 
crowded  room,  two  or  three  feet  from  the  constable.  When 
he  recognized  me  his  face  fell  and  he  turned  pale.  I  sang  a 
hymn,  none  joining  me.  Then  I  knelt  in  prayer,  and  arose 
and  preached  with  great  liberty,  until  tears  flowed  in  abun- 
dance. After  preaching  I  told  them  I  expected  they  won- 
dered by  what  authority  I  had  come  into  that  country  to 
preach.  I  then  told  them  of  my  conviction  and  conversion; 
the  place  of  my  nativity  and  place  of  residence ;  also  my  call 
to  the  ministry,  and  that  seven  years  I  had  labored  in  God's 
vineyard ;  that  I  spent  my  own  money  and  found  and  wore 
my  own  clothes,  and  that  it  was  the  love  which  I  had  for 
their  precious  souls,  for  whom  Christ  died,  that  had  induced 
me  to  come  among  them  at  the  risk  of  my  life ;  and  then 
exhorted  them  to  fly  to  Jesus,  the  ark  of  safety.  By  this  time 
the  people  were  generally  melted  into  tears.  I  then  con- 
cluded, and  appointed  preaching  on  that  day  two  weeks.  I 
mounted  my  horse  and  set  out.  I  had  not  gone  fifty  yards 
when  I  heard  hallooing,  and  saw  about  fifty  in  pm-suit.  When 
they  came  up  one  of  them  said,  '  I  crave  your  name.'  I  told 
him,  and  so  we  parted." 

On  this  Pennsylvania  pilgrimage  an  aged  Presbyterian  at- 
tacked Abbott's  work,  especially  its  excitement  and  noise  and 
the  physical  prostration  of  the  convicted.  "  It  was  all  the 
work  of  the  devil;"  he  said  "that  God  was  a  God  of  order — 
and  this  was  a  perfect  confusion."  "Well,"  said  the  Metho- 
dist, "  if  this  be  the  work  of  the  devil,  these  people  (many  of 
whom  then  lay  on  the  floor  as  dead  men),  when  they  come  to, 
will  curse  and  swear  and  rage  like  devils;  but  if  it  be  of  God, 
their  notes  will  be  changed."  Soon  after  one  of  them  revived 
and  began  to  praise  God  with  a  loud  voice,  others  soon  join- 
ing in  the  testimony  for  Jesus.      "Hark!   hark!"   said  the 


"Killing  People  Will   Not  Answer" 


165 


preacher,  "do  you  hear?     This  is  not  the  language  of  hell, 
but  of  Canaan  !" 

The  next  clay  the  questioner  came  again  and  witnessed  the 
same  scenes.     The  third  day,  though  the  appointment  was 


**f 


r«    .1    ■!.•-'■  ('f  .  ft  _    ...... 

;r..  f :  />■  r>  a  i  ■  u 

•  f  j  j   •  r  . 

i  !  '7  f  •      7. »  a> df.»»Tf  -    .'  m  ','    r  r  -  f 

■ 

■ 


■'fl  -: — - 

; 


hom  a  photograph 


GRAVESTONE   OF   REV.    BENJAMIN   ABBOTT,   SALEM,   N.   J. 

seven  miles  distant,  he  was  again  present,  and  himself  fell 
unconscious,  like  those  whom  he  had  criticised,  though  he 
said  nothing  when  he  came  to  himself.  The  fourth  day  the 
same  power  was  manifest.     Abbott,  exhausted  by  his  labors, 


166  American   Methodism 

cried,  "  For  God's  sake,  if  any  can  speak  for  God,  say  on,  for 
I  can  speak  no  more  !  "  Who  should  arise  but  the  aged  Pres- 
byterian, who  began  by  saying  that  he  was  no  Methodist,  but 
he  had  seen  enough  to  convince  him  that  the  power  of  God 
was  present  in  the  meetings.  He  followed  this  testimony 
with  a  warm  exhortation. 

On  several  occasions  Abbott  crossed  the  Delaware  to  assist 
his  son  David,  who  was  an  itinerant  preacher  in  the  Delaware 
and  Maryland  peninsula.  The  father's  fame  had  preceded 
him,  and  thousands  came  to  hear  and  see.  The  chapels  were 
too  small  for  his  congregations,  and  he  spoke  in  the  forests 
and  orchards.  The  physical  effects  of  his  preaching  were  so 
conspicuous  in  one  case  here  that  Abbott  feared  the  sinner 
might  die  in  his  trance.  "  I  concluded  to  go  home,"  he  says, 
"  and  not  proceed  one  step  farther,  for  killing  people  will  not 
answer;  but  at  last  the  man  came  to,  and  began  to  praise 
God." 

Mrs.  Abbott,  faithful  to  the  end,  died  in  1788,  and  the  next 
spring  her  husband  left  the  local  ranks  for  the  regular  min- 
istry, being  then  in  his  fifty- seventh  year.  For  seven  years 
Father  Abbott  traveled  circuits  in  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
and  Maryland,  upholding  with  much  of  his  old  energy  the 
doctrines  of  justification  and  sanctification.  About  a  year 
before  his  death  ill  health  forced  him  to  desist  from  regular 
ministerial  work,  though  he  continued  to  testify  in  public  as 
he  had  opportunity.  He  died  among  loving  friends  at  Salem, 
N.  J.,  on  August  14,  1796,  in  the  sixty-fifth  year  of  his  age. 
The  obituary  notice  in  the  Minutes  of  that  year  speaks  of  him 
with  regretful  tenderness  and  respect.  He  was  remembered 
by  multitudes  as  a  typical  primitive  Methodist  preacher ,  a 
man  full  of  faith  and  the  Holy  Ghost. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
The  Return  of  the  Missionaries 

The  English  Evangelists. —The  Way  Hedged  Up. — Escaping  to 
England.— Captain  Webb.— Martin  Rodda,  Royalist.— Shad- 
ford  Prays  for  His  King.  —  The  Maryland  "Test  Oaths."  — 
Rankin  Gives  Up. — Asbury  Will  Stay. 

THE  Wesleyan  missionaries  came  to  America  out  of  pure 
love  of  winning  souls.      They  were   bound   to   their 
native  country  by  every  tie,  and  when  the  war  hedged 
up  their  opportunities  of  traveling  and  preaching  they  went 
home  to  England  and  resumed  their  itinerant  labors  under 
Wesley's  direction. 

Captain  Webb,  the  most  picturesque  figure  of  them  all, 
loved  the  souls  of  the  Americans,  and,  from  the  very  first, 
had  spared  neither  time  nor  money  in  spreading  the  Gospel 
among  them.  But  we  cannot  doubt  that  his  British  blood 
fairly  boiled  when  the  leaden  statue  of  his  king  in  Bowling 
Green  was  pulled  over  and  melted  down  into  "  rebel"  bullets. 
He  had  married  in  America,  and  was  slow  to  give  up  his 
property  and  connections  here.  In  the  spring  of  1777,  how- 
ever, he  preached  his  last  sermon  in  Baltimore.  An  over- 
zealous  patriot,  hearing  that  he  was  a  British  officer  on  half 

pay,  informed  against  him  as  a  spy.     Webb  slipped  out  of 

167 


168 


American  Methodism 


town,  however,  and  tradition  says  that  he  lay  in  hiding  for 
some  time  at  Pemberton,  N.  J.  Eventually  he  reached  the 
British  lines  in  New  York,  and  soon  afterward  returned  to 
England.  His  declining  years  were  marked  by  the  same 
generous  zeal  for  the  Wesleyan  cause.  He  preached  success- 
fully among  soldiers,  sailors,  and  prisoners  of  war,  and  gave 
liberally  out  of  his  modest  pension  to  needy  societies  and 
chapel  funds.     He  died  suddenly  at  Bristol  on  December  10, 

1796,  and  was 
buried  in  the 
chancel  of  Port- 
land Chapel , 
where  a  portrait 
window  and  a 
mural  tablet 
commemorate  the 
sterling  qualities 
of  this  Christian 
soldier-.  "  Brave, 
active,  cour- 
ageous, faithful, 
zealous,  success- 
ful." 

Martin   Rodda 

did  more  than  any  other  English  preacher  to  spoil  the  good 
name  of  his  American  flock.  His  action  in  circulating  the 
king's  proclamation  in  Maryland  was  perhaps  no  more  than 
a  loyal  Briton  felt  bound  to  do  for  his  sovereign,  but  it  was 
directly  opposed  to  Wesley's  exhortations  to  neutrality,  and 
was  an  indiscretion  which  ended  his  usefulness  here.  Rodda 
would  scarcely  have  escaped  with  a  whole  skin  had  not 
faithful  negro  slaves  smuggled  him  on  board  a  British  ship. 


DRAWN   BY   P.  E.   FUNTOFF 


FROM    %   PHOTOGRAPH   B>   REV.   W.   ► 


INTERIOR   OF    PORTLAND    CHAPEL,    BRISTOL, 

ENGLAND. 

Captain  Webb  is  buried  in  the  apse,  and  his  memorial  tablet  is 
near  the  pulpit. 


The  Hunted   Preachers  169 

Thus  he  made  his  escape  to  Philadelphia,  and  thence  to 
England. 

There  was  not  a  more  inoffensive  and  peace-loving  man  in 
the  itinerancy  than  George  Shadford,  the  leading  spirit  in 
the  great  awakening  in  Virginia.  Yet  the  war  did  not  spare 
him.  "  They  threatened  me  with  imprisonment,"  he  says, 
••  when  I  prayed  for  the  king  ;  they  took  me  up  and  examined 
me  and  pressed  me  to  take  the  test  oath  to  renounce  him 
forever."  This  was  in  Virginia.  The  next  year  this  con- 
scientious man  labored  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland, 
and  was  confronted  with  the  ironclad  oath  of  that  State.  "  I 
was  brought  to  a  strait ;  I  had  sworn  allegiance  to  the  king 
twice  [Shadford  had  been  a  soldier  in  his  youth]  and 
could  not  swear  to  renounce  him  forever.  I  dare  not 
play  with  fast  and  loose  oaths  and  swallow  them  in  such  a 
manner.  We  could  not  travel  safe  without  a  pass,  nor  have 
a  pass  without  taking  the  oaths."  At  the  next  quarterly 
meeting  he  met  Asbury.  "  Let  us  have  a  day  of  fasting  and 
prayer,"  said  Shadford,  "that  the  Lord  may  direct  us  ;  for  we 
were  never  in  such  circumstances  as  now  since  we  were 
Methodist  ministers."  Their  prayers  were  diversely  an- 
swered. Asbury  felt  called  to  stay.  Shadford  "had  it  as 
much  impressed,  upon  his  mind  to  go  home  as  it  had  once 
been  to  come  to  America."  They  parted  in  tears,  not  to 
meet  again  on  earth. 

With  a  fellow-preacher  Shadford  presented  himself  before 
General  Smallwood.  They  told  their  story.  They  were 
British  subjects  and  inoffensive  Methodist  preachers.  Their 
work  was  done.  "We  cast  ourselves  wholly  upon  your  gen- 
erosity," pleaded  they,  "  and  hope,  as  you  profess  to  be  fight- 
ing for  your  liberties,  you  will  grant  us  a  pass  to  have  liberty 
to  return  to  our  own  land  in  peace." 


170 


American  Methodism 


"  Now  you  have  done  us  all  the  hurt  you  can  you  want  to 
go  home!"  said  the  general,  who  evidently  had  his  own 
opinion  of  Methodist  itinerants. 

But  they  soon  convinced  him  of  their  innocence  and  ob- 


FROM   A   PMOTDGR 


THE  WEBB  MEMORIAL  WINDOW  IN  PORTLAND  CHAPEL,   BRISTOL,  ENGLAND. 

The  portrait  of  Webb  on  glass   was  in   the   basement   of  the  original  chapel,  and  is   in    one  of  the 
principal  windows  of  the  present  structure. 

tained  the  desired  safe-conducts.  They  reached  Philadelphia 
with  difficulty,  having,  with  their  saddlebags  on  their  backs, 
crossed  one  long  dismantled  bridge  by  crawling  along  the 
stringpieces.  The  city  was  in  British  hands,  and  other 
Methodist  refugees  were  there.     In  the  spring  of  1778  the 


Shadford  and  Rankin  Return  171 

two  preachers  set  sail  for  the  old  country.  "  I  felt  a  very 
thankful  heart,"  says  Shadford,  "when  I  set  my  foot  on 
English  ground  in  a  land  of  peace  and  liberty,  where  was  no 
alarm  of  war  and  bloodshed.  They  who  have  never  been 
sick  do  not  know  the  value  of  health." 

In  England  Shadford  continued  to  labor  with  the  same 
steady  devotion.  He  was  a  grave  and  earnest  preacher,  and 
his  power  in  prayer  was  exceptional,  evoking  waves  of  feel- 
ing which  sometimes  swept  great  congregations  in  such  way 
as  his  sermons  seldom  did.  His  triumphant  deathbed  utter- 
ances and  his  last  words,  "I'll  praise,"  thrice  repeated,  were 
often  on  the  lips  of  the  Methodist  fathers. 

Stevens  pays  this  just  tribute  to  this  private  soldier  in  the 
itinerant  ranks:  "Shadford  excelled  any  other  of  Wesley's 
American  missionaries  in  immediate  usefulness.  His  ardor 
kindled  the  societies  with  zeal.  He  was  the  chief  'revivalist' 
of  the  times — a  man  of  tender  feelings,  warmest  piety,  and 
wonderful  unction  in  the  pulpit." 

One  of  the  unnamed  refugees  who  quitted  America  with 
Shadford  in  the  spring  of  1778  was,  probably,  Thomas  Ran- 
kin, who  had  come  out  with  him  in  1773  to  superintend  the 
American  societies,  and  who  now  abandoned  the  "  rebels"  to 
the  fortunes  of  war. 

Rankin  saw  in  the  war  a  chastisement  from  God  for  sin, 
and  he  made  no  secret  of  his  views.  "  From  the  first  day  of 
my  coming  here,"  he  wrote  in  his  Journal  in  1774,  "it  has 
always  been  impressed  on  my  mind  that  God  has  a  contro- 
versy with  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  colonies.  ...  It 
will  be  seen  shortly  whether  my  fears  and  views  were  properly 
founded  or  not."  Notes  of  the  gathering  gloom  become  fre- 
quent in  his  Journal.  On  the  fast  day  appointed  by  the 
Continental  Congress  in  July,  1775,  Rankin  preached  to  the 


172  American  Methodism 

people  on  the  causes  of  the  prevailing  distress,  telling  them 
that  the  sins  of  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies  had  long  called 
aloud  for  vengeance. 

At  a  quarterly  meeting  in  Virginia  in  1776  the  militia 
marched  up  to  seize  the  superintendent  and  his  fellow- 
preachers.  But  in  spite  of  others'  fears  the  members  prayed 
and  Rankin  preached  as  if  no  soldiers  were  present.  "  A  cry 
went  through  all  the  people  .  .  .  and  some  of  the  officers  as 
well  as  many  of  the  soldiers  trembled  where  they  stood." 
"God  forbid,"  said  an  officer,  "  that  we  should  hurt  one  hair 
of  such  a  minister  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ!" 

Rankin  had  already  determined  to  resign  his  commission 
and  return  to  England.  The  other  English  preachers,  except 
Asbury,  were  of  one  mind.  The  Conference  of  1777,  which 
was  held  "  at  a  preachinghouse  near  Deer  Creek,  in  Harford 
County,  Md.,  on  May  20,"  broke  up  with  deep  feeling,  many 
supposing  "they  should  not  see  the  faces  of  the  English 
preachers  any  more."  Two  months  later  Asbury  heard  his 
superior  preach  his  last  sermon  in  America,  and  it  made  him 
both  heartsick  and  homesick.  In  September  Rankin  left 
Maryland,  "and  through  divers  dangers  got  safe  into"  the 
British  lines  in  Philadelphia.  He  sailed  in  the  spring  of  the 
year,  and  in  June,  1778,  to  his  "unspeakable  happiness," 
was  asrain  among:  his  dear  friends  in  London. 

"We  are  left  alone,"  said  Shadford  to  Asbury,  after 
Rankin  dropped  out  of  the  work  in  September,  1777,  and 
when  the  faithful  Shadford  turned  to  go,  a  little  later,  Asbury 
was  alone  indeed.  From  the  first  his  purpose  was  fixed  to 
stay  in  the  work  into  which  the  Lord  had  so  plainly  led  him. 
Ever  since  the  earliest  mutterings  of  the  tempest  he  had 
jealously  kept  himself  clear  of  partisanship.  His  single 
business  here  was  to  lead  souls  to  Christ.     In  the  last  days  of 


Asbury  Will   Stay 


173 


April,  i"75.  lie  found  Baltimore  "inflamed  with  a  martial 
spirit"  which  he  trusted  God  would  ••overrule.''  It  was  soon 
after  this  that,  having  heard  of  the  decision  of  his  brethren 
to  retire,  he  made  his  famous  resolve  not  to  abandon  "  such 
a  field  forgathering 
souls  to  Christ." 
As  for  ' '  the  three 
thousand  souls  who 
desire  to  commit 
themselves  to  our 
care,"  he  nobly 
declares,  "  I  am  de- 
termined by  the 
grace  of  God  not  to 
leave  them,  let  the 
consequence  be 
what  it  may." 

This  resolution 
never  wavered. 
The  warlike  prep- 
arations at  Norfolk 
only  warned  him 
' '  to  watch  and  fight 
against     sin     and 

Satan."  When  the  Baltimoreans  were  alarmed,  in  the 
spring  of  1776,  by  the  rumor  of  the  approach  of  a  British  war 
ship  he  exclaimed:  "Alas  for  fallen  man!  He  fears  his 
fellow-creatures,  whose  breath  is  in  their  nostrils,  but  fears 
not  him  who  is  able  to  destroy  body  and  soul  in  hell."  Of 
himself  he  repeated:  "  My  desire  is  to  live  in  love  and  peace 
with  all  men,  to  do  them  no  harm,  but  all  the  good  I  can. 
...  I  can  leave  all  the  little  affairs  of  this  confused  world 


FROM  THE   COPPERPLATE   bv   hOPwOOD. 

LORD    NORTH. 


174  American  Methodism 

to  those  men  to  whose  province  they  pertain,  and  can  go 
comfortably  on  my  proper  business  of  instrumentally  saving 
my  own  soul  and  those  that  hear  me."  The  rumors  of  battles 
and  slaughter  gave  him  some  concern,  but  he  knew  the 
Americans  too  well  to  expect  a  British  triumph.  "What  can 
they  expect  to  accomplish,"  he  exclaims,  "  without  an  army 
of  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  men  ?  and  even  then 
there  would  be  but  little  prospect  of  their  success." 

Reports  occasionally  came  to  him  that  this  and  that  brother 
were  quitting  the  field,  yet  he  could  never  once  read  his  duty 
in  that  light.  His  plain  mission  was  to  stay,  and,  having 
done  all,  to  stand. 

To  Benson,  in  England,  Asbury  expressed  "the  general 
language  of  the  American  people  and  preachers,  that  those 
preachers  from  Europe  who  were  dissatisfied  with  the  meas- 
ures of  the  country  had  better  go  home."  Though  he  made  no 
comment  on  public  policies,  he  could  not  suppress  a  regret  at 
the  departure  of  his  colleagues.  When,  at  the  Conference  of 
1777,  tears  were  flowing  over  the  first  parting  he  was  "willing 
to  commit  the  matter  to  the  Lord."  The  others  might  go, 
but  "  I  leave  myself  in  the  hand  of  God,"  he  writes. 

When  the  storm  was  at  its  height,  and  Asbury  was  alone, 
he  wrote  :  "  I  was  under  some  heaviness  of  mind.  But  it  was 
no  wonder — three  thousand  miles  from  home — my  friends 
have  left  me ;  I  am  considered  by  some  as  an  enemy  of  the 
country ;  every  day  liable  to  be  seized  by  violence  and 
abused.  However,"  concludes  this  unique  soul,  "  all  this  is 
but  a  trifle  to  suffer  for  Christ  and  the  salvation  of  souls. 
Lord,  stand  by  me!"  And  the  Lord  was  with  him,  so  that 
he  could  soon  say,  "  We  have  great  commotions  on  every  side. 
But  in  the  midst  of  war  the  Lord  keeps  my  soul  in  peace. 

The  "  preposterously  rigid"  test  oath  which  the  Maryland 


One  of  tie  Brsl  liethodist 


A  Citizen  of  Delaware  177 

authorities  exacted  of  the  clergy  silenced  Asbury  in  that 
State  in  177S  and  1779,  because  he  could  not  conscientiously 
swear  to  all  its  provisions.  The  Delaware  laws  were  less 
exacting',  and  in  1780  Asbury  became  a  citizen  of  that  State. 
When  the  war  was  over  he  was  among*  the  first  to  accept  its 


FROM   THE   COPPERPLATE   BY   HOPWOOD. 

KING   GEORGE   THE   THIRD. 


results.  He  had  long  foreseen — apparently  with  satisfaction 
— the  outcome  of  the  war.  He  "had  believed  that  the  future 
greatness  of  Methodism  was  bound  up  with  the  independence 
of  America.  From  the  dawn  of  peace  to  the  sunset  of  his 
own  laborious  life  every  faculty  of  this  remarkable  man  was 
concentrated  in  an  effort  to  win  the  opening  continent  for 
the  cause  of  his  Church  and  its  divine  Master. 


178  American   Methodism 

Francis  Asbury  has  become  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
names  in  our  religious  history.  Methodists  venerate  him  as 
the  second  founder  of  their  Church,  and  Christian  patriots  of 
every  name  no  longer  deny  his  great  services  in  keeping 
Christian  civilization  abreast  of  the  waves  of  population  which 
swept  westward  in  the  first  three  decades  of  the  republic. 
The  Staffordshire  mechanic  well  deserves  his  belated  honors, 
but  let  us  not  forget  the  years  of  trial  which  prefaced  the 
triumph.  His  fellow-missionaries  had  sadly  turned  away 
from  this  distracted  country.  His  English  and  Loyalist 
friends  had  no  sympathy  with  his  neutrality.  The  Amer- 
icans eyed  him  with  suspicion  and  threatened  violence.  He 
endured  all  as  seeing  that  which  is  invisible,  and  his  reward 
is  sure. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


In  the  Midst  of  Alarms 


Replacing  the  English  Missionaries.— A  Foretaste  of  Persecution. 
—The  Baptists.— Outrages  in  Maryland.— Tar  and  Feathers 
for  Catch.— Hartley  in  Talbot  Jail.— Chew. — Garrettson's 
Experiences. 

THE  return  of  the  English  preachers  threw  the  Amer- 
ican societies  upon  their  own  resources.  That  mar- 
velous training  school  for  Christian  workers,  the 
British  Wesleyan  Conference,  whose  graduates  had  carried 
forward  the  work  so  well  begun  by  Webb,  Strawbridge,  and 
Embury,  was  closed  against  America  by  the  war.  To  fill 
the  vacancies  caused  by  these  withdrawals,  and  to  supply  the 
beseeching  cry  for  more  preachers  that  came  up  from  almost 
every  circuit,  scores  of  young  men  were  thrust  out  untrained 
and  inexperienced  into  the  harvest  field.  They  came  from 
the  towns  of  the  North  and  from  the  plantations  of  the  South, 
and  some  of  them  were  wearing  the  Continental  blue  and 
buff  when  they  heard  and  obeyed  the  call,  "  Go,  work."  There 
were  many  whose  opportunities  for  education  had  been  very 
slight,  yet  one  thing  they  all  knew — that  they  had  been  saved 
from  their  sins — and  they  were  intensely  eager  to  lead  others 
into  the  same  joyful  experience.     And  one  thing  they  could 

tell — that  this  salvation  was  free  to  all  men.      Such  doctrine, 

179 


180  American  Methodism 

simple  and  blessed  as  it  was.  was  rarely  heard  in  the  churches, 
and  was  even  denounced  as  heresy  from  many  scholarly 
pulpits.  But  it  was  bread  from  heaven  to  hungry  people 
who  had  been  fed  so  long  on  the  husks  of  predestinarian 
theology  that  many  of  them  had  come  to  believe  that  religion 
was  a  creed  to  dispute  about  rather  than  a  life  to  live.  They 
received  the  old  gospel  of  free  grace  eagerly  from  the  itin- 
erant plowboys  and  mechanics  who  succeeded  the  Wesleyan 
missionaries. 

Had  there  not  been  a  Providential  purpose  to  preserve 
Methodism  for  its  great  future,  the  struggling  societies  could 
hardly  have  survived  this  period  of  storm  and  stress :  bereft 
at  a  single  stroke  of  almost  every  skilled  laborer,  soon  to  be 
cut  off  from  the  advice  and  direction  of  the  patriarch  Wesley 
by  his  death,  its  Conference  recruited  with  young  men  of 
small  education  and  no  experience,  its  councils  brought  to 
the  verge  of  disruption  by  internal  dissension,  its  patriotism 
aspersed,  and  its  members  branded  as  Tories  and  subjected 
in  some  cases  to  foul  and  violent  usage.  Certainly  these  are 
they  who  have  come  up  out  of  great  tribulation. 

The  Methodist  itinerants  had  their  first  taste  of  persecu- 
tion before  the  war  hedged  them  with  enemies.  Wicked 
men,  whose  sins  they  had  rebuked,  plotted  evil  against  them  ; 
zealots  of  the  older  sects  resisted  their  efforts  to  make 
converts  in  their  "  preserves,"  and  in  more  instances  than 
one  the  tithe-taking  rectors  and  clerks  of  the  parishes  re- 
sented the  Methodist  invasion,  and  either  led  or  connived  at 
the  riotous  attempts  to  suppress  it.  Broad-minded  Presby- 
terian and  Lutheran  ministers  there  were  who  welcomed  the 
Methodists  as  their  fellow-preachers  of  righteousness,  but 
in  general  there  was  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  of 
the  older  denominations  to  engage  the  Methodist  preachers 


Free  Will  or  Bound  Will 


181 


in  argument  upon  the  doctrines  of  Calvinism  or  the  peculiar 
tenet  of  the  Baptists,  or  outcry  was  raised  against  extempo- 
raneous praying  and  unwritten  sermons. 

Thomas  Ware,  who  was  bred  among  the  New  Jersey 
Presbyterians,  told  Asbury  that  he  first  heard  of  Wesley  as 
a  man  who  "had  brought  scandal  upon  the  Christian  world 


FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH. 


HOLDEN'S   MEETINGHOUSE,   QUEEN   ANNE  CO.,   MD. 
One  of  the  oldest  in  the  State.     Said  to  have  been  built  in  1775. 

by  preaching  up  free  will."  "Free  will  ?"  said  I.  "And  what 
would  you  have  him  preach  ?  Bound  will  ?  He  might  as 
well  go  with  the  Romish  saint  and  preach  to  fish  as  preach  to 
men  without  will ! " 

The  Baptists  interfered  with  Benjamin  Abbott's  work  in 
the  same  ,State.  "They  led  my  sheep  into  the  water,"  he 
said.  Freeborn  Garrettson  encountered  them  in  Delaware, 
where  they  "greatly  hindered"  his  progress  by  "drawing 


182  American  Methodism 

off  a  few  and  setting  others  to  disputing  about  the  decrees  and 
their  method  of  baptizing."  At  another  place  a  "  Nicolite  " 
preacher  taught  that  it  was  sinful  to  wear  dyed  or  trimmed  gar- 
ments or  to  sing ;  consequently  many  had  taken  the  borders  off 
their  caps,  while  others  thought  the  Methodist  in  danger  of 
hell  fire  because  he  wore  a  black  coat.  "  Baby  sprinkler" 
was  the  pleasing  epithet  which  certain  Baptist  preachers  kept 
for  those  who  dissented  from  their  theory  of  infant  baptism. 
"  Like  ghosts  they  haunt  us  everywhere,"  wrote  Asbury. 
Against  Jarratt  and  a  few  other  friendly  clergymen  might  be 
ranged  a  long  list  of  parish  ministers  who  opposed  the  Metho- 
dists, forbade  them  to  preach  in  their  parishes,  and  winked 
at  or  openly  instigated  the  riotous  outbreaks  against  them. 

The  worldly  life  of  the  average  Church  of  England  rector 
in  Maryland  and  Virginia  offered  a  fair  mark  for  the  homely 
wit  of  the  apostolic  itinerant  whom  he  tried  to  silence,  and 
some  of  these  fine  gentlemen  suffered  severely  in  the  strife 
of  tongues.  In  Norfolk,  then  a  seaport  of  unsavory  reputa- 
tion, a  clergyman  preached  against  the  Methodists  from  the 
text,  "  Be  not  righteous  overmuch,"  to  which  the  Methodist 
is  said  to  have  responded  with  great  point  from  a  text  of  his 
own,  "  Be  not  wicked  overmuch."  An  Anglican  minister  in 
Dorchester  County,  Md.,  served  notice  upon  Asbury  that  he 
had  full  authority  over  the  souls  in  his  parish,  but  Asbury 
had  the  impertinence  to  preach  and  form  a  society  under 
his  eyes.  In  Queen  Anne  County  a  clergyman  brought  out 
an  old  law  against  unlicensed  preaching  places,  which  the 
preacher,  Watters,  evaded  by  holding  a  conventicle  in  the 
open  air  which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  a  Methodist 
society. 

To  all  these  forms  of  annoying  opposition  the  Methodists 
were  liable  as  soon  as  their  aggressive  methods  began  to  be 


Attacks  on  the  Preachers  183 

apparent  to  the  older  religious  bodies.  But  these,  and  even 
the  cruel  practical  jokes  and  displays  of  violence  by  the  god- 
less and  vicious  who  were  angered  at  the  preacher's  denun- 
ciation of  immorality,  were  experiences  which  any  Methodist 
preacher  might  reasonably  expect.  It  was  the  war  of  the 
Revolution  that  put  these  men  on  their  mettle. 

The  lawless  period  of  the  war,  with  its  popular  outcry 
against  the  Tories,  licensed  every  enemy  of  the  Methodists 
to  lift  his  hand  against  them.  Their  plight  was  worst  of  all 
in  Maryland.  The  people  had  been  excited  by  the  inju- 
dicious acts  of  one  or  two  of  the  English  preachers  who 
sought  to  do  the  American  cause  such  harm  as  they  might 
before  leaving  the  country.  Some  of  the  most  inoffensive  of 
the  American  itinerants  had  to  suffer  for  their  brethren's 
misdeeds.  The  magistrates  bowed  to  the  popular  prejudice. 
Some  of  the  preachers  were  fined,  others  bound  over  to 
silence,  others  thrown  into  the  wretched  county  jails,  others 
still  were  beaten  with  rods,  or  tarred  and  feathered,  without 
the  pretense  of  a  trial. 

In  Sussex  Count)',  Va.,  Philip  Gatch,  while  traveling 
peaceably  along  the  highway,  was  attacked  by  two  men, 
who  seized  his  arms  and  twisted  them  violently,  "  causing 
a  torture  like  the  rack."  He  had  already  worn  a  coat  of 
Maryland  tar  and  feathers,  and  had  been  treated  to  shame- 
ful bufferings  and  insults.  He  was  in  feeble  health,  and  his 
friends  deemed  it  necessary  to  form  a  bodyguard  about 
him;  "but  in  the  hour  of  clanger,"  he  says,  "my  fears 
always  vanished." 

Young  Joseph  Hartley's  outrages  had  a  dramatic  sequel. 
He  had  suffered  much  at  the  hands  of  the  magistrates  on  the 
Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  and  finally,  having  been  beaten 
with  many  stripes,  was  lodged  in   Talbot  County  jail.      He 


184  American  Methodism 

enlivened  the  hours  of  his  durance  by  preaching  through  the 
gratings  of  his  prison  house  to  the  curious  crowd  attracted  by- 
such  a  spectacle.  The  heart  of  the  magistrate  who  had 
committed  him  was  softened,  he  acknowledged  his  error,  and 
during  his  last  illness  summoned  Hartley  to  his  bedside  and 
begged  his  pardon,  praised  his  faith,  and  begged  him  to 
preach  at  his  funeral.  A  preacher  named  Chew  had  a  some- 
what similar  experience.  A  Maryland  magistrate  had  sent 
him  to  jail  because  he  had  scruples  against  taking  the  test 
oath.  This  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  new  government 
bound  those  who  took  it  to  bear  arms,  if  need  be,  and  as  the 
Methodist  preachers  generally  were  noncombatants  from 
principle  they  could  not  conscientiously  take  the  oath.  The 
sheriff  had  too  much  respect  for  his  prisoner  to  lock  him  up, 
preferring  to  keep  him  under  proper  safeguards  in  his  own — 
the  sheriff's — residence.  The  sheriff's  wife  was  so  impressed 
by  the  words  and  demeanor  of  the  man  that  she  became  a 
Christian,  and  was  a  liberal  supporter  of  the  Methodists. 

The  experience  of  the  dauntless  young  man  Freeborn 
Garrettson,  soon  to  be  a  great  figure  in  Methodism,  is  that 
of  a  Methodist  preacher  who  loved  his  country,  but  was 
forced  into  a  false  position  by  his  scruples.  In  Virginia,  in 
1777,  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  State  was  presented  to 
him.  Many  Methodist  patriots  subscribed  it,  but  his  state- 
ment of  the  reasons  for  his  refusal  explains  the  feelings  of 
those  who  could  not :  1 .  He  did  not  believe  in  swearing. 
2.  A  preacher  had  no  time  for  war. 

The  magistrate  thereupon  warned  him  to  leave  the  State, 
to  which  Garrettson  replied  that  the  Conference  had  sent  him 
there  and  he  must  obey.  "Then  go  to  jail,"  said  the  author- 
ities. "  Surely  Daniel's  God  will  defend  my  cause,"  said  the 
brave  preacher,  and  no  one  molested  him. 


The  Devil   Rattling  His  Chains  185 

Garrettson's  Journal  of  these  times  is  full  of  incidents 
which  illustrate  the  partisan  madness  of  which  the  Metho- 
dists were  the  victims.  At  one  place  a  mob  "of  the  best 
people"  came  to  the  house  where  the  preacher  lodged  and 
dragged  his  host  down  stairs  and  around  the  town  "until  his 
arms  were  as  black  as  ink  ;"  but  the  spy  who  attended  preach- 
ing to  get  evidence  against  the  preacher  was  so  powerfully- 
affected  that  his  report  sent  the  rioters  to  their  homes.  "O 
who  would  not  confide  in  so  good  a  God!"  exclaims  the 
young  itinerant.  At  another  time  Garrettson  tells  us:  "I 
was  pursued  by  a  party  of  men  who  waylaid  me,  and  the 
head  of  the  company,  with  a  gun  presented,  commanded  me 
to  stop.  Several  of  the  women  who  were  with  us  surprised 
me;  they  were  in  an  instant  off  their  horses,  and,  seizing 
hold  of  his  gun,  held  it  until  I  passed  by.  I  am  not  sur- 
prised at  the  devil's  rattling  his  chains,  for  his  kingdom  is 
coming  down  very  fast."  This  preacher  did  not  always  come 
off  scatheless.  In  Queen  Anne  County,  Md.,  he  was  beaten  with 
clubs,  and  in  Cambridge,  Dorchester  County,  was  imprisoned. 

On  entering  Dover,  Del.,  in  1778,  Garrettson  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  mob  of  hundreds  of  excited  citizens,  who  cried 
out  against  him  as  "one  of  King  George's  men;"  others  de- 
clared he  was  one  of  the  gang  of  Tories.*  Garrettson  was 
threatened  with  lynching.  A  friendly  merchant  spoke  for 
fair  play,  and  gained  a  hearing  for  the  young  man.  In  a 
voice  which,  he  tells  us,  could  be  heard  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
Garrettson  preached  from  the  words,  "If  it  bear  fruit,  well ; 
and  if  not,  then  after  that  thou  shalt  cut  it  down."  Every 
window  within  earshot  was  full  of  heads,  and  many  were 
touched  by  the  sermon. 

*  Chauncey  Clowe,  an  ex-Methodist;  had  rallied  a  company  of  three  hundred  Loyalists  in  Kent 
County,  Del.  It  was  dispersed,  however,  and  its  leader  executed.  A  careful  inquiry  is  said  to  have 
shown  that  there  were  but  two  Methodists  in  the  entire  company. 


186 


American  Methodism 


On  the  occasion  of  a  large  quarterly  meeting  in  Virginia  in 
1777  a  local  magistrate,  who  could  hardly  believe  that  such 
an  assemblage  of  Methodists  had  no  political   significance, 


FROM  A   PHOTOGRAPH   FURNISHED   BY   ORE 


DORCHESTER  COUNTY  JAIL,  CAMBRIDGE,  MD. 
Where  young  Freeborn  Garrettson  was  imprisoned  for  the  sake  of  the  Gospel. 

appeared  and  interrupted  the  services.  William  Watters, 
who  was  in  charge  of  the  service,  saved  the  people  from  fur- 
ther annoyance  by  taking  the  test  oath,  which,  as  his  patri- 
otism was  not  cumbered  with  noncombatant  principles,  he 
could  easily  do. 


CHAPTER  XX 
The  Gospel  of  Peace  in  Time  of  War 

Jesse  Lee  in  the  Army.— The  Methodist's  Triumph.— Between  Two 
Fires.— Asburv's  Dumb  Sabbaths.— Hiding  in  Swamps.— Asburv's 
"Good  News."— Three  Delaware  Laymen.— War  Notes  in  the 
Minutes.— The  Society  in  New  York. 

T  ESSE  LEE,  afterward  New  England's  Methodist  apostle, 

had  scarcely  begun  to  preach  in  North  Carolina  in   1780 

•J       when   he  was  drafted  for  the  Continental  army.     His 

account  of  the  whole  matter  is  interesting:    "  My  mind  was 

settled ;  as  a  Christian   and   as  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  I 

could  not  fight.     I  could  not  reconcile  it  to  myself  to  bear 

arms  or  to  kill  one  of  my  fellow-creatures."     He  was  taken 

to  camp,  but  would  not  touch  his  musket.     With  an  equally 

unwarlike  Baptist  recruit  he  was  placed  under  guard.     The 

two  prayed  together,  and  appointed  a  prayer  service  at  dawn. 

"  Before  sunrise,"  says  Lee,  "  I  was  up  and  began  to  sing; 

some  hundreds  soon  assembled  and  joined  with  me,  and  we 

made  the  plantation  ring  with  the  songs  of  Zion."     Prayers 

followed.     Lee  "  wTept  much  and  prayed  loud,  and  many  of 

the   poor  soldiers  also  wept."     Some  who  heard  that  loud 

prayer  called    for    preaching,  and,    mounting  a  bench,    this 

.youth,  who  had  shortly  before  been  bewailing  his  diffidence, 

187 


188  American  Methodism 

took  the  text,  "  Except  ye  repent,  and  believe,  ye  shall  all 
likewise  perish."  The  privates  in  the  ranks  were  much 
moved,  and  the  colonel  treated  him  with  respect.  "I  told 
him,"  Lee  continues,  "that  I  could  not  kill  a  man  with  a 
good  conscience,  but  I  was  a  friend  to  my  country,  and  was 
willing  to  do  anything  I  could  while  I  continued  with  the 
army,  except  fight."  He  was  detailed  to  drive  a  baggage 
wagon,  and  messed  with  the  cook,  likewise  a  Methodist. 
During  his  four  months  of  service  Lee  served  as  volunteer 
chaplain,  in  which  capacity  he  won  the  confidence  of  his 
comrades  and  turned  many  hearts  to  the  Lord. 

Richard  Ivey,  or  Ivy,  who  joined  Conference  in  1778,  had 
once  to  preach  in  West  Jersey,  near  the  quarters  of  a  body 
of  American  troops.  They  had  vowed  vengeance  on  the 
next  "  Methodist  Tory"  who  should  pass  that  way.  A  cor- 
don of  soldiers  was  drawn  around  his  preaching  place,  and 
two  officers  with  drawn  swords  seated  themselves  in  front 
of  him.  The  intrepid  itinerant  was  master  of  the  occasion. 
He  exhorted  his  hearers  to  fear  ' '  neither  foreign  nor  do- 
mestic tyranny,"  glancing  significantly  at  the  bare  steel. 
Then,  baring  his  breast,  he  addressed  the  officers:  "  Sirs,  I 
would  fain  show  you  my  heart.  If  it  beats  not  high  for 
legitimate  liberty,  may  it  forever  cease  to  beat!"  His  action 
and  words  thrilled  his  congregation.  The  swords  rattled 
back  into  their  scabbards,  and  from  the  soldiers  listening  at 
the  windows  burst  the  ringing  cheer,  "  Hurrah  for  the  Metho- 
dist parson !" 

From  1776  to  1780  Asbury  was  between  two  fires.  As  an 
Englishman  he  was  suspected  by  the  Americans  of  being  the 
secret  ally  of  their  foe,  while  his  former  associates  and  coun- 
trymen blamed  him  for  consorting  with  rebels. 

In  the  first  years  of  the  war  his  feeble  health  gave  way 


One  of  Asbury's  Vacations  189 

under  the  strain  of  excessive  travel  over  rough  roads  and 
long-  journeys,  and  he  went  to  the  mineral  springs  at  Bath, 
in  northwestern  Virginia,  for  one  of  the  rare  "vacations"  in 
his  busy  life.  Here  he  remained  upward  of  a  month.  Dur- 
ing these  days  his  "little  employments"  were  "to  read 
about  one  hundred  pages  a  day  [Christian  biography  chiefly] ; 
usually  to  pray  in  public  five  times  a  day ;  to  preach  in  the 
open  air  every  other  day ;  and  to  lecture  in  prayer  meeting 
every  evening."  His  house  at  the  springs  was  twenty  by 
sixteen  feet  "and  there  are  seven  beds  and  sixteen  persons 
therein,  and  some  noisy  children.  .So  I  dwell  among  briars 
and  thorns,  but  my  soul  is  at  peace." 

Before  1778,  when  the  feeling  against  the  Methodists  cul- 
minated, Asbury  had  discovered  that  he  must  remain  in 
America  at  his  peril.  In  one  place  he  was  arrested  and 
fined  £5  "for  preaching  the  Gospel;"  at  another  a  bullet 
was  fired  at  him,  but  missed  its  mark.  Better  intended, 
but  equally  menacing  to  the  future  of  Methodism,  was 
the  invitation  which  came  to  him  to  settle  as  pastor  of  a 
parish  church.  The  stirring  spirit  that  had  fought  from 
the  first  for  "a  circulation  of  the  preachers"  was  not  to  be 
tempted  to  "settle."  He  declared:  "  Nothing  shall  separate 
me  from  the  brethren.     I  hope  to  live  and  die  a  Methodist." 

In  the  winter  of  1777-78  the  middle  colonies  continued 
full  of  rumors  of  Clowe's  regiment  of  Methodist  Tories,  of 
Rodda's  perfidy  in  scattering  the  king's  proclamation  on  his 
circuit,  and  of  one  of  Rankin's  last  sermons  in  Philadelphia, 
when  he  prophesied  that  God's  work  would  not  revive  until 
the  rebellious  spirit  of  America  was  subdued.  It  became 
hazardous  for  a  Methodist  preacher  to  show  himself,  and 
when  even  the  native  itinerants  were  not  exempt  from  mal- 
treatment the  peril  of  Asbury  may  be  imagined.     Shut  out 


190  American  Methodism 

of  Maryland  and  Virginia  because  he  could  not  take  their 
test  oaths  requiring  him  to  bear  arms  if  called  upon,  he  re- 
mained for  a  year  in  "the  Delaware  State,"  as  he  calls  it. 
Most  of  the  time  he  was  harbored  by  Judge  Thomas  White, 
one  of  the  sturdiest  of  the  early  friends  of  Methodism.  For 
three  months  of  this  time  he  was  obliged  to  be  very  circum- 
spect, and  four  or  five  of  these  Sundays  were  the  "dumb 
Sabbaths,"  whose  loss  grieved  him  sorely.  When  it  was 
unsafe  for  him  to  speak  in  public  he  addressed  little  com- 
panies of  the  faithful  in  private  dwellings.  In  March,  1778, 
we  find  him  applying  himself  closely  to  his  Greek  and  Latin 
studies.  "  But  this,"  he  adds,  "  is  not  to  me  like  preaching 
the  Gospel.  However,  when  a  man  cannot  do  what  he 
would  he  must  do  what  he  can."  Besides  his  studies  he 
"spent  some  time  in  instructing  the  children,"  and  intended 
"  to  lecture  frequently  in  the  family." 

His  presence  m  the  White  household  brought  suspicion 
upon  its  head,  and  the  judge  was  arrested  by  the  light-horse 
patrol  for  aiding  the  enemies  of  America.  Five  days  later 
Asbury  himself  fled  from  the  shelter  of  that  hospitable  roof, 
and  took  refuge  in  the  swamps,  where  his  condition  re- 
minded him  of  "some  of  the  old  prophets,  who  were  con- 
cealed in  times  of  public  distress."  Another  friend  took 
him  to  his  home  and  cared  for  him,  but  he  lamented  sadly 
that  he  must  still  be  dumb.  "  I  must  sit  down  and  weep," 
he  exclaims  on  Good  Friday,  "when  I  remember  Zion  and 
the  years  of  God's  right  hand!"  It  was  not  until  July  that 
he  could  "lay  a  plan  to  travel  and  preach  nine  days  in  two 
weeks,  one  step  toward  my  former  regularity  in  what  appears 
to  me  as  my  duty,  my  element,  and  my  delight."  In  1779 
he  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  in  Delaware.  The  feeling 
against   him  had   been   quieted,  it  is  said,  by  the  circulation 


Meditation  on  American   Independence 


191 


of  a  letter  which  he  had  written  to  Rankin  a  year  or  two 
earlier,  predicting  the  independence  of  the  American  nation 
and  declaring  his  determination  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  it. 

On  Friday,  May  11,  1782,  at  Culpeper  Court  House, 
Va.,  Asbury  heard 
"the  good  news 
that  Britain  had 
acknowledged  the 
independence  for 
which  America  has 
been  contending." 
He  adds  :  ' '  May  it 
be  so !  The  Lord 
does  what  to  him 
seemeth  good." 
Almost  a  year  later 
the  report  was  con- 
firmed, whereupon 
the  thoughtful 
itinerant  "  had 
various  exercises 
of  mind."  "It 
may  cause  changes 
to  take  place  among 
us,"  he  wrote, 
"some  for  the 
better  and  some 
for  the  worse.  It 
may  make  against  the  work  of  God ;  our  preachers  will 
be  far  more  likely  to  settle  in  the  world ;  and  our  people, 
by  getting  into  trade  and  acquiring  wealth,  may  drink 
into  its  spirit."     Thus   he    meditated   while    men    of    more 


1  Engraving  Bt  mai 

THE    SURRENDER   OF    CORNWALLIS. 


192  American  Methodism 

earthly  minds  were   "firing  their  cannons  and  rejoicing  in 
their  way." 

Asbury's  enforced  residence  in  Delaware  brought  him  into 
close  contact  and  friendship  with  some  of  the  best  men  of 
the  State.  Dr.  McGaw,  the  generous  rector  at  Dover,  loved 
the  preacher  and  approved  his  work,  while  the  names  of 
three  friendly  laymen — White,  Bassett,  and  Barratt — hold  a 
permanent  place  in  Methodist  history. 

Thomas  White,  the  Kent  County  judge  who  opened  his 
house  to  the  hunted  evangelist,  owed  his  interest  in  the 
Methodists  to  his  excellent  wife,  Mar}-,  a  worthy  companion 
of  Prudence  Gough  and  Barbara  Heck  in  the  immortal  roll 
of  Methodist  women.  They  had  been  "  Church  people  "  un- 
til Mrs.  White  learned  the  Methodist  way  and  brought  her 
husband  into  it.  He  soon  "had  the  preaching  at  his  house" 
before  the  chapel  known  as  "White's"  was  built.  During 
the  black  years  of  the  war  he  suffered  much  in  and  out  of 
jail  for  his  sympathy  with  the  "Tory  Methodists,"  but  con- 
tinued steadfast.  At  his  death,  in  1 795,  Asbury  wrote  :  "The 
news  was  an  awful  shock  to  me.  I  have  met  with  nothing 
like  it  in  the  death  of  any  friend  on  the  continent.  I  have 
lived  days,  weeks,  and  months  in  his  house.  He  was  among 
my  very  best  friends."  Lednum  well  says,  "In  moral  worth 
Judge  White  had  no  superior  in  his  day — his  house  and 
hands  were  always  open  to  relieve  the  needy." 

To  the  mansion  of  the  Whites  came  one  day  the  lawyer, 
Richard  Bassett,  always  a  welcome  guest.  Catching  sight 
of  some  strangers,  he  asked  of  Mrs.  White,  "Who  are  these 
black-coats?" 

"  O,  those  are  some  of  the  best  men  in  the  world,"  said  she. 
"They  are  Methodist  preachers." 

"  Then  I  cannot  stay  here  to-night,"  said  the  lawyer. 


Judge  Bassett,  of  Delaware 


193 


••  You  muststay,"  urged  the  hostess.     "  They  cannot  hurt 

J  oil." 

So  Bassett  stayed  and  found  so  much  in  Asbury  to  admire 
that  he  invited  him  to  his  own  home  in  Dover.  The  ac- 
quaintance thus  opened   ripened   rapidly.     He  and  his  wife 


IATURE    BY    ST.    MCMIN. 


HON'.    RICHARD    BASSETT,  OF    DELAWARE. 

Judge,  member  of  United  States  Constitutional  Convention,  governor,  senator. 

became  staunch  supporters  of  Methodism  in  Delaware.  Bas- 
sett was  an  eminent  lawver,  one  of  the  framers  of  the  Con- 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  governor  of  the  .State,  and 
senator  of  the  United  States,  but  he  was  not  above  preaching 
in  the  Methodist  societies.  The  "old  log  Bethesda  Chapel," 
on  his  estate  at  Bohemia  Manor,  was  the  scene  of  great 
outpourings  of  grace  in  those  early  days.      Asbury  spoke  of 


194  American  Methodism 

Bassett  as  his  "long-loved  friend."  He  died  in  1815,  and 
the  famous  preachers,  Henry  Boehm  and  Ezekiel  Cooper, 
conducted  the  funeral  services. 

The  name  of  Judge  Barratt  also  appears  in  Asbury's  Jour- 
nals as  one  who  befriended  him  and  his  cause  when  in  sore 
need.  His  name  has  come  down  to  us  in  connection  with 
"  Barratt's  Chapel,"  which  he  built  for  the  Methodists  ;  for  in 
this  unpretentious  structure  Thomas  Coke,  of  England,  and 
Francis  Asbury,  of  America,  the  designated  bishops  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  first  met  face  to  face  and  in  the 
full  tide  of  their  emotion  kissed  each  other. 

The  printed  Minutes  of  the  Conferences  of  the  war  period 
reflect  but  dimly  the  turmoil  of  the  time.  In  1775  a  fast  day 
was  appointed  ' '  for  the  prosperity  of  the  work  and  for  the 
peace  of  America."  Similar  fasts  were  appointed  in  the  two 
following  years.  The  seventh  question  in  1777  was,  "As 
the  present  distress  is  such,  are  the  preachers  resolved  to 
take  no  step  to  detach  themselves  from  the  work  of  God  for 
the  ensuing  year?  "  This  was  answered  with  an  emphatic  af- 
firmative. 

In  1778  the  public  fast  was  set  for  the  last  Friday  of 
August.  In  1779,  "it  being  unadvisable  for  Brother  Asbury 
and  Brother  Ruff,  with  some  others,  to  attend  in  Virginia," 
the  northern  preachers  met  with  Asbury  in  Delaware. 

The  Conference  of  1783  appointed  two  days  of  public 
thanksgiving  "  for  our  public  peace." 

The  adversity  which  beset  the  Methodist  cause  during  the 
war  adds  an  interest  to  the  scanty  statistics  of  membership 
as  given  in  the  printed  Minutes  of  the  Conferences.  The 
totals  by  years  are  as  follows  :  1775,  3, 148  ;  1776,  4,92  1  ;  1777, 
6,968;  1778,6,095;  1779'  8.577  >  1780.  8,504;  1781,  10,539; 
1782,  11,785;  1783,  13,740.     In  nine  years  the  membership 


Fluctuating  Numbers 


195 


had  twice  doubled,  and  in  two  years  only  is  a  slight  loss 
noted!  Some  of  the  more  exposed  circuits  reveal  greater 
fluctuations.  Thus,  New  York  fell  from  200  in  1775  to  132  in 
1776,  and  to  96  in  1777.  and  was  not  reported  again  until  the 


PHOTOGRAPH,  1900,    BY  t 


BARRATT  S   CHAPEL,  SIDE   VIEW. 

The  oldest   Methodist  chapel   in   Delaware,  and  one  of  the  oldest  in  America.     It   is  situated  near 

Frederica,  Del. 

British  evacuation,  which  took  with  it  many  sympathizers. 
In  1784  the  membership  stood  at  60,  besides  24  in  the  new 
circuit  of  "  Long  Island."  Between  1773  and  1779  Philadel- 
phia lost  more  than  half  its  members,  and  New  Jersey  de- 
clined from  300  to  150.  At  the  close  of  the  war  the  great 
body  of  American  Methodists  was  to  be  found  in  ATirginia 
and  in  the  States  immediately  adjacent.  Of  Methodist  suc- 
cess in  these    regions  William  Watters,  one  of  its  factors, 


196  American  Methodism 

wrote,  "It  is  not  more  astonishing  than  true  that  the  work 
continued  to  spread  in  all  those  parts  where  we  had  preach- 
ers to  labor,  and  I  doubt  whether  at  any  time  before  or  since 
it  has  been  more  genuine  among  us  than  during  the  war." 

In  the  list  of  Conference  appointments  for  1777  "New 
York  "  is  left  blank  ;  the  chapel  for  which  Barbara  Heck  had 
prayed  and  Embury  had  labored  was  left  unsupplied.  Man- 
hattan Island  was  then  and  until  the  close  of  the  war  occu- 
pied by  British  troops.  Of  the  Christian  churches  few  were 
spared;  some  became  barracks,  one  a  prison,  in  others  cav- 
alry were  stabled ;  but  the  Wesley  Chapel  seems  to  have 
been  spared  any  worse  indignity  than  being  assigned  to  the 
Hessians  for  worship  on  Sunday  mornings.  The  Methodists 
had  the  use  of  this  one  chapel  at  other  times,  and,  though 
severed  from  the  connection  and  without  recognition  by  the 
Conference,  services  were  regularly  maintained  on  the  Wes- 
leyan  plan.  In  fact,  the  sum  paid  to  the  preacher,  $300  a 
year — the  largest  salary  thus  far  paid  in  Methodism — shows 
that  the  war-time  collections  in  New  York  must  have  been 
unusually  good. 

John  Mann,  a  native  Gothamite,  and  a  local  preacher 
whom  Boardman  had  brought  into  the  fold,  took  up  the 
work  when  Daniel  Ruff,  the  Conference  preacher,  found 
New  York  getting  uncomfortable,  in  the  battle  summer  of 
1776.  Two  years  later  Samuel  Spraggs,  an  Englishman 
who  had  ceased  to  itinerate  in  America,  arrived  in  New 
York  and  took  charge,  Mann  continuing  as  his  helper  until 
the  evacuation,  when  with  other  Loyalists  he  migrated  to 
Nova  Scotia.  Spraggs  served  the  society  in  John  Street 
until  the  peace,  and  was  afterward  for  some  time  a  minister 
of  a  Protestant  Episcopal  parish  in  Elizabeth,  N.  J. 

The  Methodist  meetings  in  New  York  did  not  go  scot  free, 


Skylarking  Soldiers  197 

though  less  molested  than  the  Presbyterians  and  Lutherans 
about  them.  Skylarking  soldiers  occasionally  strolled  in  to 
play  tricks  on  the  pious  worshipers.  Old  Methodists  long 
told  with  relish  how  one  rollicking  squad  of  redcoats,  who 


FROM   A   PHOTOGRAPH    BY   A.   W     QUIMBY. 


BARRATT'S   CHAPEL    IN    I90O,    FRONT    VIEW. 

bawled  out,  "God  save  great  George,  our  king ! "  in  the  midst 
of  the  service,  were  drowned  out  by  the  lusty  Methodist 
chorus,  "  Come,  thou  Almighty  King."  On  another  occasion 
a  party  of  revelers  forced  an  entrance  into  a  watch  night 
service.  An  officer  clad  in  a  devil  disguise — cow-skin  with 
horns  painted  red,  and  a  long  tail — was  preparing  to  enter 
the  pulpit,  when  two  muscular  brethren  unceremoniously  put 
him  out  of  the  chapel.      Lednum  affirms  that  General  Howe 


198  American  Methodism 

stationed  a  guard  before  the  place  to  prevent  the  repetition 
of  such  indecencies. 

While  the  British  occupied  Philadelphia  they  seized  "the 
Methodist  cathedral,"  old  St.  George's,  where  the  first  Con- 
ference had  been  held,  and  used  it  for  a  riding:  school.  The 
Methodists  were  allowed  to  use  the  Baptist  church  on  La- 
grange Place. 

The  Revolution  dispersed  some  societies  and  crippled 
others  by  silencing  the  English  preachers  and  throwing  ob- 
stacles in  the  way  of  the  American  itinerants.  Yet  it  was 
not  unmingled  with  blessing.  Its  alarm  and  bloodshed 
helped  the  preachers  to  arouse  men's  souls  to  their  desperate 
condition  without  Christ;  it  hurried  into  the  itinerant  min- 
istry some  of  the  choicest  young  Americans  of  that  genera- 
tion ;  it  gave  an  impetus  to  travel  and  migration  which  in 
another  quarter  of  a  century  had  settled  an  empire  west  of 
the  Alleghanies;  but,  most  important  of  all,  it  broke  the  or- 
ganic connection  between  the  Methodists  of  England  and 
America,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  organization,  under 
new  and  favorable  conditions,  of  an  independent  Church  in 
the  new-born  American  republic. 


CHAPTER  XXI 


Preachers — or  Ministers  ? 


The  Sacramental  Controversy.— Wesley's  Demands. — Conditions 
in  America.— Strawbridge  Baptizes.— Flight  of  the  Clergy.— 
"Shall  We  Re  Ministers?" — An  Open  Breach. — Asbury's  Lead- 
ership Ack.no\vledged.--The  Breach  Closed. 

FROM  i ///  to  1 78 1  the  American  Methodists,  harassed 
by  political  enemies,  fell  prey  to  an  internal  dissen- 
sion which,  but  for  the  iron  will  of  Francis  Asbury, 
must  have  ended  in  disaster.  This  may  be  called  the  Sacra- 
mental Controversy.  It  grew  naturally  out  of  the  difficulty 
of  fitting  a  British  institution  to  American  conditions,  and 
must  have  come  up  in  due  course  of  time,  but  it  was  the  war 
that  suddenly  made  it  a  vital  issue. 

Until  the  organization  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
at  the  Christinas  Conference  in  1784,  the  Methodist  societies 
in  America  had  no  ecclesiastical  standing  whatever.  They 
were  mere  associations  for  the  improvement  of  their  mem- 
bers in  spiritual  life.  They  had  preaching  places  in  dwell- 
ings and  barns,  and  had  even  erected  buildings  for  their 
especial  use.  But  these  modest  and  spireless  chapels  were 
used  only  as  preachinghouses,  and  were  rarely  dignified  by 

the  name  of  "church."     The  untiring  evangelists  who  gath- 

199 


200 


American  Methodism 


ered  and  served  these  societies— whether  missionaries  from 
the  Wesleyan  body  in  England,  like  Pilmoor,  Rankin,   and 

Asbury,  or  native  American  con- 


verts, like  Watters,  Gatch,  and 


strawbridge's 
log  chapel, 
sam's    creek. 


Abbott — were 
simply  lay 
preachers,  di- 
vinely called  to 
the  work,  and 
duly  accepted 
and  enrolled  in 

the  Conference  by  their  fellows.  They  had  received  none 
of  those  rites  of  ordination  so  prized  by  Churchmen,  and  were 
without  authority  from  bishop  or  presbyter  to  administer  the 


STONE   CHAPEL,    BUILT    1783,   REBUILT    1800. 
This  building  replaced  the  "  log  chapel  "  shown  above. 


"  Who   Leaves  the  Church  Leaves  the  Methodists  "      201 

sacraments.  Wesley,  himself  a  regularly  ordained  clergy- 
man in  the  Church  of  England,  was  still  vigorously  resisting 
the  natural  tendencies  of  the  British  Methodists  to  separate 
from  the  national  Church.  ' '  Who  leaves  the  Church  leaves  the 
Methodists,"  he  had  tersely  said.  He  demanded  that  chapel 
meetings  must  be  so  timed  as  not  to  conflict  with  the  church 
services,  and  that  the  Wesleyans  must  partake  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  and  have  their  children  baptized  at  the  consecrated 
hands  of  the  parish  rector. 

Ill  as  Wesley's  plan  for  keeping  the  Methodist  body  within 
the  Church  worked  at  home,  where  there  was  one  great 
historic  Church  whose  ministers  were  everywhere,  it  failed 
utterly  in  the  colonies,  where  the  Anglican  rectors  were,  if 
possible,  less  spiritual  than  in  England,  and  where  the  Metho- 
dist membership  was  recruited  from  Presbyterians,  Friends, 
Lutherans,  and  other  sects.  Wesley  strictly  enjoined  his 
missionaries  to  enforce  the  Wesleyan  rules,  and  send  their 
converts  to  church.  But  in  many  parishes  the  rector  was  a 
profligate  younger  son  whom  the  Bishop  of  London  had  sent 
to  a  living  in  the  New  World  to  get  rid  of  him.  In  other 
localities  there  were  no  Church  ministers ;  and  the  indefati- 
gable Methodist  preachers  penetrated  to  frontier  settlements 
where  no  minister  of  any  sect  had  yet  appeared.  To  enforce 
the  Wesleyan  rule  in  such  cases  as  these  must  be  at  the  ex- 
pense of  wounded  consciences  or  the  entire  neglect  of  the 
precious  ordinances. 

Robert  Strawbridge  was  the  first  to  make  trouble.  No 
Conference  had  sent  him  to  America  and  no  parchment 
attested  his  call  to  preach.  In  his  backwoods  home  there 
was  neither  church  nor  minister,  and,  with  an  independence 
of  churchly  sanction  which  sadly  shocked  the  formal  ears  to 
which  in  time  it  came,  he  cut  the  knot  by  administering  bap- 


202  American  Methodism 

tism  to  his  converts  and  their  children,  and  giving  the  bread 
and  wine  in  the  rustic  societies  which  he  had  nurtured.  No 
wonder  that  the  severe  Rankin  and  the  strait-laced  young 
Asbury  set  themselves  sternly  against  such  a  breach  of  Wes- 
leyan  precept.  At  the  first  Conference,  in  1773,  the  first  two 
rules  were  aimed  at  this  laxity.  We  may  be  permitted  to 
quote  them  again : 

1.  Every  preacher  who  acts  in  connection  with  Mr.  Wesley  and  the  brethren 
who  labor  in  America  is  strictly  to  avoid  administering  the  ordinances  of  bap- 
tism and  the  Lord's  Supper. 

2.  All  the  people  among  whom  we  labor  to  be  earnestly  exhorted  to  attend 
the  Church  and  receive  the  ordinances  there  ;  but  in  a  particular  manner  to  press 
the  people  in  Maryland  and  Virginia  to  the  observance  of  this  Minute. 

This  Conference  appointed  Strawbridge  to  the  Baltimore 
Circuit,  with  the  rigid  Asbury  as  the  senior  preacher  to  keep 
him  in  order.  The  Journal  of  the  latter  notes  that  the  Con- 
ference excepted  Strawbridge  by  name  from  the  prohibition 
in  regard  to  the  ordinances,  though  it  placed  him  "  under  the 
particular  direction  of  the  assistant."  It  seems  probable  that 
he  proved  unruly,  for  he  received  no  appointment  the  next 
year.  In  1775  his  name  appeared  on  the  roll  for  the  last 
time,  though  he  continued  to  exercise  his  gifts  among  the 
rural  societies  of  his  vicinity  until  his  death,  half  a  dozen 
years  later.  The  spirit  of  the  disciplinarian  in  Asbury  never 
condoned  Strawbridge's  defiance  of  the  discipline ;  and  when 
the  warm-hearted  Maryland  pioneer  who  deserved  a  better 
tribute  was  laid  in  his  grave  all  that  his  former  associate 
could  say  was,  ' '  He  is  no  more ;  on  the  whole  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  the  Lord  took  him  away  in  judgment,  because 
he  was  in  a  way  to  do  hurt  to  the  cause." 

The  war  brought  the  sacramental  question  to  a  crisis,  for 
in  Maryland  and  Virginia — the  two  colonies  where  the  Metho- 
dists were  most  numerous  and  the  Anglican  Church  was  by 


Spiritual  Orphans  203 

law  established — most  of  the  clergy  took  the  Tory  side  and 
had  to  flee  to  England,  abandoning  their  pulpits.  Of  the 
ninety-one  parish  clergy  in  Virginia  in  1776  only  twenty- 
eight  were  found  at  the  end  of  the  war,  and  of  these  only 
fifteen  had  retained  their  parishes. 

At  the  Conference  of  1777,  the  English  preachers  not 
being  expected  to  stay  the  year  out,  an  executive  committee 
of  five,  three  of  whom  were  Americans — Watters,  Gatch,  and 
Ruff — -was  appointed  to  look  out  for  the  interests  of  the  con- 
nection. Watters  says  that  the  question  came  tip,  "  Whether, 
in  our  present  situation  of  having  but  few  ministers  left  in 
many  of  our  parishes  to  administer  the  ordinances  of  baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper,  we  should  administer  them  ourselves-, 
for  as  yet  we  had  not  the  ordinances  among  us,  but  were 
dependent  on  other  denominations  for  them,  some  receiving 
them  from  the  Presbyterians,  but  the  greater  part  from  the 
Church  of  England.  In  fact,  we  considered  ourselves  at  the 
time  as  belonging  to  the  Church  of  England.  After  much 
conversation  on  this  subject  it  was  unanimously  agreed  to 
lay  it  over  for  the  determination  of  the  next  Conference." 
Asbury  and  Shadford,  with  probably  all  the  Englishmen, 
opposed  the  revolutionary  innovation. 

With  Rankin  and  Shadford  homeward  bound,  and  Asbury 
hiding  in  Delaware,  the  preachers  who  met  in  Conference  at 
Leesburg,  Va.,  in  1778,  felt,  as  Watters  says,  like  "spiritual 
orphans."  To  many  it  seemed  that  the  time  had  come  for 
them  to  act  as  ministers,  but  after  long  debate  the  conserv- 
atives again  succeeded  in  postponing  the  important  decision 
another  twelvemonth. 

The  next  year  brought  matters  to  a  crisis.  Communica- 
tion and  travel  being  interrupted  by  the  war,  the  preachers 
could  not  come  together  in  one  place.     For  the  first  time  the 


204  American  Methodism 

Conference  was  held  in  two  sections.  The  Maryland  and 
Delaware  preachers,  including  Watters,  Garrettson,  Pedicord, 
and  Gill,  assembled  on  April  28,  1779,  at  Judge  White's, 
in  Kent  County,  Del.,  where  Asbury  was  in  harbor,  and 
those  from  the  southern  circuits  met  at  Brockenback  Chapel, 
Fluvanna  County,  Va.,  on  May  18.  The  printed  Minutes 
treat  both  meetings  as  one  Conference.  Of  Asbury 's  undy- 
ing opposition  to  the  proposition  which  was  so  surely  gaining 
ground  among  the  preachers  there  was  no  possible  doubt. 
The  question  came  up  in  the  Delaware  Conference,  "Shall 
we  guard  against  a  separation  from  the  Church — direct  or 
indirect?"  The  preachers  answered,  "  By  all  means."  The 
departure  of  Thomas  Rankin  had  left  the  work  without  a 
head,  and  Asbury  was  now  chosen  "General  Assistant  for 
America" — a  providential  selection,  in  view  of  his  long  expe- 
rience in  the  work  on  both  continents  and  his  ability  to  plan 
and  execute. 

This  was,  however,  the  act  of  the  Northern  preachers,  and 
did  not  bind  the  whole  connection.  William  Watters,  the 
senior  native  American  preacher  in  the  work — he  was  still 
under  thirty — was  delegated  to  attend  the  Conference  in 
Virginia  and  report  the  sentiments  of  Asbury  and  the 
Northern  brethren.  His  mission  failed  to  moderate  the 
action  of  the  Southern  preachers.  Deeming  Wesley's  au- 
thority over  them  terminated  by  the  withdrawal  of  his 
missionaries,  recognizing  the  urgent  need  and  express  de- 
sire of  their  people,  who  constituted  two  thirds  of  the  con- 
nection in  America,  they  resolved  almost  unanimously, 
"after  much  loving  talk,"  to  break  the  tie  which  bound 
them  to  the  Church  of  England,  and  to  assume,  under  proper 
restrictions  and  with  due  solemnity,  the  full  rights  and 
powers  of  Christian   ministers.     Four  laymen  of  experience 


A  Line  of  Division  205 

as  preachers — Gulch,  Foster,  Cole,  and  Ellis — were  appointed 
and  "constituted  a  presbyter)'.  First,  to  administer  the 
ordinances  themselves;  second,  to  authorize  any  other 
preacher  or  preachers,  approved  by  them,  by  the  form  of 
laying  on  of  hands." 

The  ministers  so  ordained  were  to  give  the  sacraments  to 
Methodists  only.  They  might  baptize  by  "  either  sprinkling 
or  plunging,"  with  a  service  "  short  and  extempore,  according 
to  Matt.  28.  19,  '  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.'"  Communicants  were  exhorted  to 
kneel  in  receiving  the  elements,  which  were  administered 
"according  to  the  Church  order." 

Jesse  Lee  says  that  the  preachers  had  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  if  "  God  had  called  them  to  preach  the  Gospel,  he 
had  called  them  also  to  administer  the  ordinances."  The 
ordaining  committee  having  done  its  work,  the  preachers 
went  forth  on  their  circuits  as  before. 

Thus  the  beginning  of  1780  found  a  sharp  line  of  division 
running  through  the  Methodist  body  in  America.  The  major- 
ity of  preachers,  with  the  general  approval,  it  is  said,  of  the 
societies  under  them,  had  taken  a  step  which  separated  them 
from  the  old  Church,  and  in  effect  made  them  an  independ- 
ent Church.  The  minority  stood  firm  for  the  old  Wesleyan 
ways.  Their  numbers  were  few,  and  if  a  less  determined 
fighter  than  Francis  Asbury  had  been  at  their  head,  they 
would  doubtless  have  acquiesced  in  the  decision  of  their 
brethren  at  Fluvanna.  But  Asbury  did  not  flinch.  The 
Northern  preachers  met  this  year  at  Lovely  Lane  Chapel,  in 
Baltimore ;  Asbury  venturing  out  of  Delaware*  to  preside  at 
their  little  meeting.  They  reaffirmed  their  purpose  "to  con- 
tinue in  close  connection  with  the  Church,  and  to  press  the 
people  to  a  closer  communion  with  her."    To  meet-the  popular 


206  American  Methodism 

demand  for  the  sacraments  they  would  ' '  grant  the  privilege  to 
all  friendly  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England,  at  the  request  or 
desire  of  the  people,  to  preach  or  administer  the  ordinances  " 
in  the  Methodist  chapels.  The  Minutes  closed  with  a  declara- 
tion of  war.  They  recorded  a  unanimous  disapproval  of  ' '  the 
step  our  brethren  have  taken  in  Virginia,"  and  asserted  that 
the  offenders  could  not  be  looked  upon  "  as  Methodists  in  con- 
nection with  Mr.  Wesley  and  us"  until  they  should  retract 
and  return  to  uniformity. 

The  three  leading  men  in  the  Baltimore  gathering — As- 
bury,  Watters,  and  young  Freeborn  Garrettson — were  se- 
lected to  take  an  ultimatum  to  the  Virginia  preachers  in 
Conference  at  Manakintown.  The  condition  of  reunion 
was  that  the  Southerners  must  "suspend  all  their  adminis- 
trations and  all  meet  together  in  Baltimore  the  next  year." 

Two  of  the  Southern  leaders,  Gatch  and  Ellis,  had  attended 
the  Baltimore  meeting  in  the  interest  of  harmony,  but  had 
been  cavalierly  treated,  as  they  thought,  and  Watters  tells  us 
that,  for  his  part,  he  set  out  on  his  mission  to  Virginia  ' '  hoping 
against  hope."  The  three  delegates  were  fraternally  received 
and  respectfully  heard,  but  they  found  the  Virginia  brethren 
confirmed  in  their  independent  course  by  the  manifest  favor 
of  the  Lord,  who  had  crowned  their  labors  with  success 
during  the  Conference  year.  Asbury  and  Watters  presented 
the  matter,  and  appealed  to  every  consideration  to  bring  the 
seceders  back  to  the  old  way,  but,  though  both  parties  "wept 
and  prayed  and  sobbed,"  neither  would  come  to  the  other's 
terms.  The  Southerners  even  offered  to  retire  from  the  field 
if  Asbury  would  take  care  that  their  work  should  not  suffer. 
But  he  had  no  men  with  whom  to  supply  their  circuits.  His 
proposal  that  they  should  suspend  the  ordinances  temporarily 
was  rejected.      "They  wept  like  children,"  he  says,    "but 


Reconciliation  207 

kept  their  opinions."  To  all  appearances  the  effort  for  union 
had  failed  completely.  The  great  gulf  between  the  two 
parties  seemed  fixed.  On  the  last  night  of  the  Conference 
the  three  retired  sorrowfully  to  rest,  having  prayed  as  with  a 
broken  heart,  but  when  they  went  next  day  to  bid  farewell 
forever  to  those  whom  they  could  no  longer  call  brethren 
they  found  that  a  change  had  taken  place.  Late  at  night  a 
Southern  brother  had  providentially  offered  an  acceptable 
compromise :  the  ordained  preachers  would  desist  from  ad- 
ministering the  ordinances  for  one  year,  until  the  circum- 
stances could  be  presented  to  Wesley,  and  Asbury,  already 
the  chosen  head  of  the  Northern  preachers,  should  be  invited 
to  "superintend  the  work  at  large."  Next  morning  these 
pacific  proposals  were  adopted  with  a  shout,  and  the  Confer- 
ence broke  up  "with  rejoicings  and  praises  to  God."  Young 
Garrettson  says,  "  We  set  our  faces  northward  with  gladness 
of  heart,  praising  the  Lord  for  his  goodness." 

The  ordinances,  thus  suspended  for  a  year,  were  not  soon 
resumed.  It  was  a  great  day  for  Methodism  when  the  whole 
Conference,  after  two  years  of  division,  met  together  at 
Baltimore  in  1781.  William  Watters,  though  so  weak  and 
ill  that  he  could  scarcely  sit  on  his  horse,  made  a  point  to  be 
there  and  see  the  blessed  sight  with  his  own  eyes,  which  had 
shed  so  many  tears  over  the  apparently  inevitable  disunion. 
"  We  rejoiced  together," says  he,  "that  the  Lord  had  broken 
the  snare  of  the  devil,  and  our  disputes  were  all  at  an  end." 
We  are  told  by  Asbury  that  at  this  Conference  "all  but  one 
agreed  to  return  to  the  old  plan  and  give  up  all  the  adminis- 
trations of  the  ordinances.  Our  troubles,"  he  adds,  in  an 
unusual  spirit  of  hopefulness,  "now  seem  over  from  that 
quarter." 

The  end,  however,  was  not  quite  yet.     In  poor  Virginia, 


208  American  Methodism 

deserted  by  its  parish  ministers  and  suddenly  bereft  of  the 
sacraments  which  the  preachers  had  promised,  the  distress 
was  great,  and  Asbury  thought  it  wise  at  the  next  session 
(1782)  to  obtain  the  signatures  of  all  members  of  Conference 
to  a  pledge  "  to  cleave  to  the  old  plan  in  which  we  had  been 
so  greatly  blessed."  Only  one  had  stood  out  against  the 
final  vote  at  Baltimore  in  the  preceding  year,  and  now  again 
only  one  refused  to  sign  the  paper. 

To  his  old  friend  George  Shadford,  in  England,  who  knew 
his  heart  so  well,  and  whose  departure  had  been  his  sorest 
loss,  Asbury  wrote,  after  the  Conference  of  1783,  touching 
the  outcome  of  the  bitter  strife  over  this  question:  "You 
have  heard  of  the  divisions  about  that  improper  question 
proposed  at  the  Deer  Creek  Conference  (1777),  '  What  shall  be 
done  about  the  ordinances?  '  You  know  we  stood  foot  by 
foot  to  oppose  it.  I  cannot  tell  you  what  I  suffered  in  this 
affair.  However,  God  has  brought  good  out  of  evil,  and  it 
has  so  cured  them  that  I  think  there  will  never  be  anything 
formidable  in  that  way  again." 

Before  the  end  of  the  next  year,  1784,  the  vexed  question 
which  had  brought  the  societies  to  the  verge  of  disruption 
was  finally  settled,  to  the  satisfaction  of  preachers  and  peo- 
ple, by  the  organization  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church ; 
an  independent  ecclesiastical  body,  served  by  its  own  or- 
dained ministers. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

The  Man  at  the  Helm 

Wesley's  One-man  Theory.— Early  Superintendents.— Asbury  Cho- 
sen by  the  Brethren. — A  Tour  of  Duty. — Confidence  in  the 
Future  of  America. 

JOHN  WESLEY  was  no  democrat.  A  supporter  of  the 
crown  in  British  politics,  he  was  himself  monarch 
among  his  preachers.  The  Wesleyan  "Conferences" 
were  no  more  than  the  name  implies.  Wesley,  or  his  ap- 
pointee, was  in  the  chair,  and  however  freely  the  preachers 
might  speak  their  minds  in  these  "conversations"  the  final 
decision  of  all  questions  was  reserved  to  him. 

This  personal  authority  Wesley  strove  to  exert  in  distant 
America  through  regularly  appointed  deputies.  As  soon  as 
the  prospects  of  the  work  in  the  Xew  World  warranted  such 
a  step  he  commissioned  a  member  of  the  British  Conference 
to  act  as  his  "assistant,"  and  committed  to  him  the  superin- 
tendence of  the  American  societies.  Richard  Boardman  was, 
it  appears,  the  first  to  exercise  this  authority.  In  October, 
1772,  Francis  Asbury  received  a  letter  from  Wesley  appoint- 
ing him  to  this  office,  and  in  June  of  the  following  year  he  in 
turn  was  superseded  by  Thomas  Rankin,  who  came  clothed 

with  special  powers  as  general  assistant.     The  latter  says 

209  ., 


212  American   Methodism 

ence.  The  former  might  have  been  called  conservatives; 
the  latter,  radicals  or  progressives." 

The  next  year,  1780,  brought  about  a  happy  compromise 
and  the  Southern  preachers  practically  accepted  Mr.  Asbury's 
authority.  Thus  by  the  election  of  his  fellow-preachers,  and 
not  by  Wesley's  direct  appointment,  Asbury  became  the 
recognized  head  of  the  Methodist  societies  in  America.  At 
the  same  time  the  subsidence  of  the  anti-Tory  cry  against 
the  Methodists  left  him  free  to  travel.  He  at  once  under- 
took a  tour  of  inspection,  visiting  in  the  course  of  ten  months 
the  circuits  from  New  Jersey  to  North  Carolina,  and  even 
penetrating  to  points  on  the  frontier  which  the  itinerants  had 
never  reached.  In  this  way  he  came  into  personal  contact 
and  acquaintance  with  the  scores  of  young  preachers  who 
had  come  into  the  work  since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and 
he  also  gained  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  wide  field. 

This  first  grand  tour  developed  those  qualities  which  dis- 
tinguished Francis  Asbury  as  the  great  pioneering  bishop. 
Before  his  journey  was  half  over,  in  October,  1780,  he  wrote, 
"  I  have  traveled  so  much  that  it  seems  like  confinement  to 
rest  one  day ;  I  hope  I  shall  travel  as  long  as  I  live ;  travel- 
ing is  my  health,  life,  and  all  for  soul  and  body."  No  phys- 
ical obstacle  could  turn  him  back.  "The  young  man  with 
me,"  he  writes,  "was  heartless  before  we  had  traveled  a 
mile ;  but  when  he  saw  how  I  could  push  it,  and  sometimes 
force  my  way  through  a  thicket  .  .  .  for  there  was  no  road,  he 
took  courage."  After  eight  or  nine  hours  of  this  sort  of 
work  they  came  to  a  settlement,  "the  people  looking  almost 
as  wild  as  the  deer  in  the  woods."  Here  he  had  only  time 
to  pray  and  write  in  his  Journal.  This  was  in  North  Caro- 
lina, where  there  were  few  signs  of  life  except  cabins  built 
with    poles.     Most   of   the    streams   they    forded    or   swam. 


Six  Months  in  the  Saddle 


213 


Once  a  ferryman  cursed  him  because  his  purse  was  empty. 
In  southeastern  Virginia  he  renewed  his  acquaintance  with 
Rev.    Devcrcux   Jarratt,    and   for   the    first    time    heard    the 


SKETCHED   BY  G 


RO   BONTE   FKOM  ASBURr  S  JOURNAL. 


FRANCIS   ASBURY'S   SOUTHERN   CIRCUIT,   APRIL-NOVEMBER,    1780. 

He  left  Dover  April  24,  attended  Conference  in  Baltimore,  then  to  Conference  at  Manakintown,  Va., 
May  9,  spent  a  month  in  the  region  of  Petersburg ;  entered  North  Carolina  June  16,  was  at  Green 
Hills  July  5  ;  crossed  Haw  River  July  2; ;  at  Hillshoro  August  2  ;  reentered  Virginia  August  12  ; 
at  Petersburg  September  27;  Brockenback  chapel,  October  3 ;  in  Blue  Ridge  Mountains  October 
9-1S;  Fredericksburg,  October  31  ;  Baltimore,  October  31  ;  Dover,  November  3. 

thunders  of  Benjamin  Abbott's  exhortations  and  saw  the 
smitten  people  "  fall  to  the  ground  under  it,  and  sink  into  a 
passive  state,  helpless,  motionless." 

A  few  weeks  after  the  Conference  of   i;Si  he  was  again  in 


214 


American  Methodism 


the  saddle  in  Virginia,  among  the  foothills  of  the  mountains, 
"a  mountain  that  at  this  part  of  it  is  two  days'  journey 
across;   thither  some  of  our  preachers  are  going  to  seek  the 


REV.    FRANCIS    ASBURY    IN    HIS    FORTY-NINTH    YEAR. 

The  so-called  "  lost  portrait  "  was  made  for  Mr.  James  McCannon,  of  Baltimore,  and  dis- 
covered after  man}' years  of  obscurity  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  C  M.  Roberts,  who  re- 
produced it  in  his  "  Centenary  Pictorial  Album,"  1866.  For  its  origin,  see  Asbury's 
Journal,  June  18,  1794. 

outcasts  of  the  people."  Two  weeks  later,  after  exploring 
one  of  the  noble  caverns  of  this  region,  he  "  came  away  filled 
with  wonder,  with  humble  praise,  and  adoration." 


Hope  for  the  Republic  215 

"I  have  been  greatly  blessed,"  he  wrote  in  his  Journal, 
"  fn  journeying  through  this  mountainous  district,  my  soul 
enjoying  constant  peace.  I  find  a  few  humble,  happy  souls ; 
and,  although  present  appearances  are  gloomy,  I  have  no 
doubt  but  that  there  will  be  a  glorious  Gospel  day  in  this  and 
every  other  part  of  America."  It  was  his  serene  confidence 
in  his  God  and  in  the  future  of  religion  in  America — a 
prospect  which  did  not  seem  brilliant  at  this  time  to  most 
observers — that  supported  him  through  the  hardships  of  his 
life  of  poverty  and  unwearied  toil. 

Occasionally  a  note  like  the  following  varies  the  monot- 
ony of  his  Journal:  "I  have  heard  of  a  great  work  among 
the  Germans  toward  Lancaster.  Certain  opposing  sectarians 
hunt  our  preachers  like  partridges  upon  the  mountains ;  they 
are  trying  to  stop,  but  are  going,  I  apprehend,  the  readiest 
way  to  establish  us." 

As  he  came  to  know  the  quality  of  the  young  itinerants, 
and  to  take  in  the  vastness  of  the  territory  which  was  the 
heritage  of  the  new-born  republic,  his  spirits  rose  in  contem- 
plation of  the  opportunity  which  was  opening  to  win  a  nation 
for  Christ.  In  the  year  of  the  peace  (1783)  he  wrote  to  his 
dear  friend  Shadford,  in  England,  praising  the  matchless  de- 
votion of  the  preachers  and  rhapsodizing  over  the  prospect 
for  religion  in  liberated  America.  He  reckons  himself  a  true 
American  now.  "I  have  loved,  and  do  love  her,"  he  said, 
and  "your  old  national  pride  as  a  people  has  got  a  blow." 

Whatever  golden  visions  might  float  before  his  eyes  As- 
bury's  own  treasure  was  surely  not  of  this  world.  In  1784 
he  wrote  home:  "My  allowance  is  £24  currency  [about  $60], 
with  my  traveling  expenses  paid.  I  know  not  that  I  could 
call  my  one  coat  and  waistcoat,  and  half  a  dozen  shirts,  two 
horses,  and  a  few  books  my  own,  if  my  debts  were  paid." 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

Freeborn  Garrettson 

Birth  and  Environment.— Methodist  Awakenings.— "Lord,  I  sub- 
mit."—The  Slaves  Go  Free.— Out  with  the  Tory. — Member  of 
Conference.— Labors  in  the  Peninsula. — Specimen  Days.—"  Old 
things  have  passed  away." — new  doors  open. 

THE  name  of  Freeborn  Garrettson  must  ever  hold  a 
prominent  place  in  any  history  of  American  Metho- 
dism. He  was  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  native 
youths  to  enlist  under  the  Wesleyan  missionaries.  In  the 
first  years  of  his  preaching  service  he  endured  unflinchingly 
the  storm  of  obloquy  and  insult  which  sprang  from  the  bitter- 
ness of  political  feeling.  He  was  the  chosen  messenger  sent 
in  1784  to  give  notice  to  the  preachers  of  the  coming  Christ- 
mas Conference,  and  after  the  organization  of  the  Church  he 
was  for  many  years  one  of  its  most  sagacious  and  influential 
leaders. 

The  homestead  of  the  Garrettsons — a  substantial  Maryland 
family  of  English  origin — was  pleasantly  located  near  the 
head  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  here  the  son  Freeborn  first  saw 
the  light  on  the  15th  of  August,  1752.  His  parents  were 
worthy  communicants  of  the   Church   of    England,   and   his 

mother's  deeper    religious   nature  had  been   stirred    by  the 

216 


PAINTEO   BV   PaRAOiSE. 


ENGRAVED    BY    FRY 


First  presiding  elder  of  the  New  York  Di>trict. 


Garrettson's  Conversion  219 

appeals  of  Whitefield.  But  neither  they  nor  even  the  rector 
could  satisfy  the  boy's  religious  cravings.  The  rude  preach- 
ing of  Straw-bridge,  rough-spoken  but  real,  which  aroused 
the  levity  of  his  companions,  made  him  grave. 

Garrettson  owed  his  awakening  to  the  testimony  of  a 
fresh  convert,  who  met  him  on  the  road  and  talked  so 
sweetly  of  Jesus  and  his  people  that  he  "was  deeply  con- 
vinced that  there  was  reality  in  that  religion."  The  rector 
would  have  kept  him  away  from  such  associations.  "The 
Methodists,"  he  said,  "  carry  things  too  far;  a  man  cannot 
know  his  sins  are  forgiven ;  and  all  we  can  expect  in  this 
life  is  a  hope  springing  from  an  upright  life,"  adding  some- 
thing significant  about  the  necessity  of  literary  qualifications 
for  preachers  of  the  Gospel.  Yet  young  Garrettson  felt 
drawn  toward  the  Methodist  meetings.  He  heard  Asbury, 
and  noted  with  surprise  "  that  a  person  could  go  on  so  fluently 
without  his  sermon  before  him."  He  heard  Watters,  the 
young  American  whose  experience  was  not  unlike  his  own. 
Thoughts  of  his  soul's  condition  came  to  occupy  most  of  his 
time,  and  his  father  was  vexed  to  find  his  son  spending  night 
after  night  in  weeping  and  private  prayer.  The  youth 
attempted  to  relieve  his  conscience  by  taking  counsel  of  the 
church  rector  and  following  a  life  of  strict  morality,  but  this 
standard  was  far  below  the  joyous  liberty  in  Christ  which 
rang  out  in  every  Methodist  testimony,  hymn,  and  exhortation. 

One  of  Daniel  Ruff's  searching  sermons  brought  matters  to 
a  crisis.  Garrettson  was  riding  home  in  despair  when  the 
question  came  to  him  as  never  before.  He  cried,  "Lord,  I 
submit!  "  and  threw  the  reins  on  his  horse's  neck  and  clasped 
his  hands.  The  response  came  quickly.  "  I  felt,"  says  he, 
"  that  power  of  faith  and  love  that  I  had  been  a  stranger  to. 
My  soul  was  so  exceeding  happy  that  I  seemed  as  if  I  wanted 


220  American  Methodism 

to  take  wing  and  fly  away  to  heaven."  On  reaching  home  he 
summoned  the  household  and  offered  public  prayer.  A  few 
days  later  he  bade  his  slaves  go  free,  being  convinced  of  the 
iniquity  of  holding  ' '  our  fellow-creatures"  in  bondage,  though 


DRAWN    BY    G.    WILLARD    BONTE.  FROM    THE   ORIGINAL     IN     THE     METHOOlST     HISTORICAL     SOCIETY,     N.     Y. 

THE  SADDLEBAGS  OF  THE  REV.  FREEBORN  GARRETTSON. 
A  good  example  of  this  indispensable  feature  of  the  equipment  of  the  circuit  rider  of  the  heroic  days. 

he  says  he  "  had  never  read  a  book  on  the  subject,  nor  been 
told  so  by  anyone.  It  was  God  that  taught  me  the  impro- 
priety of  holding  slaves,  and  I  shall  never  be  able  to  praise 
him  enough  for  it." 

In  those  days,  when,  as  Watters  tells  us,  every  convert  was 
a  prophet,  young  Garrettson,  mindful  of  the  impression 
which  he  had  received  from  the  nameless  brother,  was  soon 
telling  his  experience  to  all  who  would  listen.  With  fellow- 
travelers  on  the  highway  and  by  the  firesides  of  the  neigh- 
boring planters,  he  told  with  ardor  of  his  escape  from  the 
bondage  of  sin.  The  work  was  starving  for  lack  of  helpers, 
and  the  keen-eyed  itinerants  were  quick  to  press  such  a  zeal- 
ous convert  into  service.  In  1775  Martin  Rodda  took  him 
around  his  circuit.      Partisan  feeling  was  intense  at  the  time, 


A  Zealous   Convert  221 

and  just  then  for  a  preacher  to  be  found  in  Rodda's  company 
was  a  poor  recommendation  to  an  American  congregation. 
Garrettson  was  hooted,  struck  in  the  face,  drafted  for  service 
in  the  army,  and  fined.  None  of  these  things  moved  him.  In 
a  vision  of  deep  sleep  he  saw  the  devil  himself  lay  hold  upon 
him,  to  drag  him  away  from  the  angel  of  light  who  was  call- 
ing him  to  preach,  but  he  cried  out  in  his  dream,  "  Lord,  send 
by  whom  thou  wilt ;  I  am  willing  to  go  and  preach  thy  Gospel ;" 
whereupon  the  foul  fiend  incontinently  vanished.  Garrettson 
now  gave  himself  wholly  to  the  itinerant  work,  and  opened  a 
circuit  of  his  own.  It  was  at  this  time  that  his  words  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  Ezekiel  Cooper ;  then  a  lad  of  thirteen, 
but  destined  to  become  one  of  the  most  useful  Methodists  of 
his  generation. 

In  1776  the  name  of  Freeborn  Garrettson  appeared  for  the 
first  time  in  the  list  of  Conference  appointments.  Frederick 
was  his  first  circuit,  and  he  traveled  it  in  spite  of  obstacles 
which  would  have  defeated  a  less  determined  man.  The 
latter  half  of  the  year  he  traveled  Fairfax  Circuit,  following 
the  Virginia  bank  of  the  Potomac  to  new  settlements  in  the 
mountains  where  no  preacher  had  hitherto  been  heard.  The 
people  hung  around  him,  he  says,  so  that  he  could  scarcely 
get  free,  begging  him  with  tears  not  to  leave  them.  In  1777 
he  was  sent  to  Brunswick,  in  southern  Virginia,  with  Watters, 
where  the  great  revival  was  already  on  foot.  He  could  now 
rejoice  in  the  numbers  and  pentecostal  fervor  of  the  great 
outdoor  meetings  in  that  region,  and  rejoiced  in  his  own 
progress  toward  "  that  perfect  love  that  casts  out  fear." 

Garrettson  had  need  of  all  his  heroism  when,  in  1778,  his 
appointment  across  the  Chesapeake  took  him  upon  the  penin- 
sula of  Maryland,  a  region  where  his  former  associate,  Rodda, 
had   brought    Methodism   into   ill    repute   by  his    pernicious 


222  American  Methodism 

Royalist  activity.  Joseph  Hartley,  his  colleague,  was 
clapped  into  jail,  though  the  authorities  soon  concluded  to 
release  him,  for  by  preaching  through  his  barred  window  he 
attracted  larger  congregations  than  when  left  to  himself. 
Garrettson,  undismayed  by  Hartley's  experience,  passed  up 
and  down  through  the  peninsula  counties  of  Maryland  and 
into  Delaware,  offering  salvation  to  souls  perishing  in  sin 
and  as  far  as  possible  avoiding  political  questions.  His  pru- 
dence did  not  serve  him.  In  Queen  Anne  County  he  was 
brutally  knocked  from  his  horse  and  nearly  killed  by  an  ex- 
magistrate.  But  his  appointment  to  preach  had  to  be  kept, 
and  that  same  evening  from  his  bed  he  spoke  his  burning 
message  to  a  few  friends  gathered  in  a  private  house.  The 
text  bespoke  the  hero's  character:  "In  the  world  ye  shall 
have  tribulation,  but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the 
world."  The  next  day  he  was  out  again  and  preached  twice, 
his  bandaged  wounds  being  not  less  eloquent  than  his  tongue 
concerning  the  peace  that  passeth  understanding.  Such 
devotion  was  irresistible.  Such  a  man,  they  said,  could  be 
no  Tory  spy.     From  this  time  he  had  the  people  on  his  side. 

The  fruits  of  Garrettson's  labors  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
peninsula  were  abundant  and  lasting.  New  societies  were 
gathered,  new  chapels  erected,  and  scores  of  converts  added 
to  those  who  rejoiced  in  the  witness  of  sins  forgiven.  Men 
and  women  who  had  not  heard  a  real  sermon  since  White- 
field's  campaign,  and  who  "had  only  a  little  spark  left," 
recognized  on  Garrettson's  lips  a  coal  from  the  same  high 
altar,  and  opened  their  hearts  and  houses  to  his  preaching. 
His  success  aroused  the  representatives  of  rival  sects,  but  his 
tact  and  earnestness  were  as  successful  against  them-  as  his 
indomitable  spirit  had  been  against  political  opponents. 

The    Journal   which  Garrettson  kept  in    those  days,   and 


Extraordinary  Activity  223 

which  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  interesting  publica- 
tions of  the  Methodist  press,  shows  the  desperate  spiritual 
dearth  of  the  people  to  whom  the  Methodists  preached. 
Some  portions  of  the  peninsula  were  quite  destitute  of 
religion.  Meeting  a  man  in  the  road,  Garrettson  asked  him 
his  customary  question,  "Do  you  know  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  ?"  "  Sir,"  replied  the  rustic,  "  I  know  not  where  the 
gentleman  lives."  The  answer  so  amazed  the  preacher  that 
he  repeated  his  question  more  clearly,  supposing  that  he  had 
been  misunderstood,  but  he  could  get  nothing  out  of  the  fel- 
low except,  "  I  know  not  the  man." 

In  one  place  the  minister  joined  the  outcry  against  the 
Methodist,  and  maintained  that  he  "held  out  nineteen 
errors."  Lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort,  with  others  who 
would  have  considered  themselves  of  "the  quality,"  en- 
deavored to  confuse  the  young  preacher.  But  trials  of  smoke, 
bell  ringing,  and  drums  were  but  a  light  affliction.  The 
more  the  minister  preached  and  spoke  against  him,  he  says, 
' '  the  more  earnestly  did  the  people  search  their  Bibles  to 
know  whether  these  things  were  so."  His  own  verdict  upon 
his  work  is,  ' '  The  Lord  enlarged  my  heart,  and  gave  me 
many  precious  souls." 

After  a  brief  term  of  labor  in  New  Jersey,  in  1780,  Garrett- 
son returned  to  the  peninsula  to  encounter  the  last  and  bitter- 
est wave  of  persecution  in  Dorchester  County.  He  was 
seized  while  preaching  and  thrown  into  the  wretched  jail  at 
Cambridge.  His  imprisonment  was  long  but  far  from 
tedious,  for  he  assures  us  that  his  soul  was  so  exceedingly 
happy  that  he  scarcely  knew  how  the  days  and  nights  passed. 
In  fifteen  months  of  service  on  the  peninsula,  in  1778-9, 
Garrettson  preached  in  over  one  hundred  places  that  had 
never  heard  the  Methodist  message  of  free  and  full  salvation. 


224  American  Methodism 

After  preaching  it  was  his  custom,  by  no  means  singular 
among  the  early  preachers,  to  explain  the  nature  and  design 
of  the  Methodist  societies,  and  to  "  desire  the  weeping  flock 
that  wished  to  join  to  draw  nigh  and  open  their  minds." 
Then  he  would  examine  them  one  by  one,  and  admit  those 
who  seemed  to  be  in  earnest. 

A  few  specimen  Sabbaths  drawn  from  Garrettson's  invalu- 
able Journal  will  serve  to  display  the  activity  of  a  successful 
preacher  in  those  days,  though  it  should  be  remembered  that 
the  week  was  filled  with  labors  scarcely  less  severe. 

On  June  21,  1779,  Garrettson  had  intended  meeting  the 
society  for  personal  examination  at  8  A.  M.,  but  so  many 
strangers  were  present  that  he  could  not  miss  the  opportunity 
to  preach.  "  At  twelve  about  fifteen  hundred  gathered,  and 
the  Lord  made  bare  his  arm  under  the  spreading  trees." 
After  a  brief  intermission  he  preached  again,  whereupon 
"  weeping  was  on  every  side,"  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole 
country  would  turn  to  the  Lord.  Throughout  the  week  Gar- 
rettson remained  in  that  locality,  visiting  the  distressed  and 
conversing  on  personal  religion  and  preaching  several  times 
a  day. 

Another  Sabbath — Dover,  Del.,  July  5,  1779.  Preached 
at  Dover  a  little  after  sunrise ;    then   rode  four  miles  and 

preached  with  great  effect  to  a  throng  at  Brother  B 's 

at  9  a.  M.  At  1  r.  M.  preached  again  under  the  trees  at 
Mother  Kill,  six  miles  farther  on.  Again  five  miles,  and  then 
the  fourth  and  best  discourse  of  the  day  at  sunset.  A 
Quaker  who  heard  his  sermon  at  sunset  declared  "  he  spake 
by  the  Spirit,  if  any  man  did,"  but  when  he  learned  how  main- 
times  Garrettson  had  already  spoken  that  day  he  altered  his 
mind.  That  day  was  exceptional  even  for  Garrettson,  but 
the  preacher  asserts  that  he  ' '  scarcely  felt  the  fatigues  of  the 


A  Bonfire  of  Vanities  225 

day"  after  fifteen  miles  in  the  saddle  and  six  hours  in  the 
pulpit  on  a  diet  of  milk  and  water. 

Garrettson  was  sometimes  called  an  enthusiast — an  epithet 
which  a  Methodist  rarely  eseaped  in  those  days.  The  fact 
that  he  allowed  himself  to  be  controlled  by  dreams  and  visions 
perhaps  gave  some  force  to  the  charge,  though  his  dominant 
good  sense  saved  him  from  any  extravagances.  "  I  did  by 
no  means  intend  to  gratify  the  curiosity  or  tickle  the  ears  of 
those  who  live  in  pleasure,"  he  wrote  after  he  had  been  sixteen 
years  in  the  ministry ;  his  aim  was  "to  be  instrumental  in 
bringing  precious  souls  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  At  one 
place,  the  stock  complaint  had  been  raised  against  the  Metho- 
dists "  that  they  had  hollowing  meetings;"  which  led  Gar- 
rettson to  say  that,  for  himself,  he  is  "never  distressed  in 
hearing  convinced  sinners  crying  for  mercy,  though  they 
were  to  cry  so  loud  as  to  be  heard  a  mile." 

Garrettson's  success  on  the  peninsula  gave  him  prominence 
among  the  preachers,  in  whose  ranks  the  war  had  played 
such  havoc,  and  in  the  following  years  he  was  appointed  to 
stations  of  importance  in  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia, 
and  North  Carolina.  On  his  brief  tour  of  the  Little  York 
region,  in  Pennsylvania,  in  1781,  he  preached  in  the  German 
churches  and  in  the  barns  of  the  farmers,  with  general  ap- 
proval. "This  is  the  right  religion,"  said  these  honest 
people.  It  was  on  one  of  these  occasions  that  a  simple- 
minded  couple  were  so  stirred  by  one  of  his  appeals  that  they 
went  home,  washed,  and  dressed  themselves  in  clean  linen, 
taking  thus  literally  the  "  washing  of  regeneration  "  of  which 
the  pi-eacher  had  spoken.  "  Old  things  have  passed  away," 
said  they,  and  began  throwing  their  old  clothes  and  bedding 
and  even  Continental  currency  into  the  fire.  The  horrified 
neighbors  ran  in  and  put   a   stop  to  this  waste,  clapped   a 


226  American  Methodism 

mustard  plaster  on  the  man,  and,  following  the  advice  of  a 
wise  Quaker  woman,  sent  posthaste  after  the  preacher  to 
return  and  make  good  the  mischief  he  had  wrought.  Gar- 
rettson  came  back  as  fast  as  his  horse  could  carry  him, 
stripped  off  the  plaster,  and  in  a  few  earnest  words  showed 
the  good  people  the  true  meaning  of  the  doctrine  which  they 
had  so  strangely  misunderstood. 

While  on  the  Sussex  Circuit,  in  1781,  Garrettson  was  seri- 
ously embarrassed  by  the  war,  Cornwallis  on  one  side  and 
Lafayette  on  the  other  being  then  campaigning  in  Virginia. 
Here  again  his  popularity  suffered  from  his  plain  speaking 
on  the  wrong  of  slaveholding  and  the  right  of  an  American 
to  be  a  man  of  peace  in  time  of  war — this  within  earshot  of 
the  guns  at  Yorktown. 

Asbury's  keen  eye  for  ability  early  singled  out  this  ener- 
getic son  of  Maryland  for  especial  responsibilities — the  only 
honors  in  his  gift.  A  man  who  could  travel  five  thousand 
miles  and  preach  five  hundred  sermons  in  a  twelvemonth,  as 
Garrettson  did  in  1781,  was  a  workman  after  the  general 
assistant's  own  model. 

In  1784  he  was  appointed  to  proceed  to  Charleston,  to 
reestablish  upon  a  sound  basis  the  w^ork  in  South  Carolina. 
Before  his  departure,  however,  the  event  occurred  which  was 
to  transform  American  Methodism  and  open  new  fields  to 
his  activity.  Dr.  Coke's  arrival  from  England,  with  plans 
for  a  Church  organization,  made  it  advisable  to  summon  all 
the  preachers  to  a  special  Conference  or  convention  in  Balti- 
more, and  Garrettson  was  selected  for  the  onerous  duty  of 
summoning  the  laborers  from  their  scattered  circuits.  He 
was  now  in  his  thirty-third  year,  energetic,  hopeful,  coura- 
geous, the  embodiment  of  manly  vigor,  and  already  gave  fair 
promise  of  his  subsequent  career  of  usefulness. 


CHAPTER    XXIV 
The  Sisters 

Methodism  and  Woman.— Representative  English  Women. — Bar- 
bara Heck.  — Mar v  Thorn. —  The  Prophet's  Chamber. —  Mary 
White.— Ann  Bassett.— Prudence  Gough.— A  Look  Ahead. 

THE  son  of  Susanna  Wesley  was  not  the  person  to 
underrate  the  advantage  of  enlisting  the  gentleness 
and  tact  of  women  in  Christian  work.  It  is  one  of 
the  chief  glories  of  the  religious  movement  to  which  John 
Wesley  gave  impulse  and  direction  that  it  threw  open  to 
consecrated  womanhood  a  field  of  almost  unlimited  useful- 
ness. Methodism  came  preaching  a  free  salvation  and  a  real 
experience.  The  saying  that  the  early  converts  were  all 
prophets  applies  to  both  sexes.  Men  and  women  alike  were 
urged  to  bear  testimony  to  what  the  Lord  had  done  for  them. 
Abundant  and  unprecedented  opportunity  for  religious  con- 
versation and  exhortation  was  afforded  by  the  prayer  meet- 
ings, band  meetings,  and  class  meetings  which  formed  dis- 
tinctive features  of  the  Methodist  plan.  Thus  the  convert 
not  only  had  something  to  say,  but  a  place  to  say  it  in  and 
an  interested  audience.  Those  who  excelled  in  these  srather- 
ings  were  certain  to  come  to  the  attention  of  the  circuit 
preacher  and  to  be  appointed  to  the  leadership  of  classes,  an 

office  to  which  women  and  men  were  alike  eligible. 

227 


228  American  Methodism 

Nor  was  religious  activity  limited  to  those  who  had  the  gift 
of  exhortation  or  leadership.  Salvation  by  faith  might  be 
the  basis  of  Wesleyan  theology,  but  its  itinerants  insisted  so 
strongly  upon  a  life  of  holiness  that  they  were  freely  accused 
of  "preaching  up  good  works."  In  the  roll  of  those  who 
distinguished  themselves  in  works  of  mercy  and  help  are  the 
names  of  honorable  women  not  a  few.  In  England  Mary 
Bosanquet  had  turned  her  house  into  an  orphanage :  Sarah 
Ryan  had  left  a  life  of  gayety  that  she  might  mother  the  lads 
in  Kingswood  School.  "  Show  me  the  woman,"  said  Wesley, 
"  in  England,  Wales,  or  Ireland,  who  has  done  so  much  good 
as  Grace  Murray."  The  Countess  of  Huntingdon  was  but  one 
of  the  ladies  of  rank  who  made  costly  sacrifices  for  the  ex- 
tension of  the  cause;  still  others,  like  Hester  Ann  Rogers 
and  Dinah  Evans,  were  evangelists  of  uncommon  gifts  and 
grace. 

A  woman's  name  must  be  written  in  the  opening  chapter 
of  American  Methodism,  whatever  the  writer's  theory  of  the 
place  of  its  origin.  Whether  the  one-eyed  officer,  the  car- 
penter schoolmaster,  or  the  Irish  farmer  be  reckoned  its  hero, 
its  heroine  was  Barbara  Heck.  The  story  of  the  righteous 
German  woman  who  scattered  the  card-players  and  recalled 
Philip  Embury  to  his  duty  will  be  told  as  long  as  Methodist 
children  listen  at  their  mother's  knee  to  the  wonderful  story 
of  their  Church.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  project  of  build- 
ing the  first  chapel  in  New  York  would  have  failed  had  it  not 
been  for  this  woman's  faith  and  determination.  The  names 
of  more  than  thirty  women  appear  among  the  subscribers  to 
the  building  fund.  The  largest  contribution  from  a  woman 
was  Mrs.  Anderson's  £$  45.,  and  from  other  entries  in  the 
account  books  of  the  society  it  seems  probable  that  she  was 
a  poor  widow  who  earned  her  living  by  working  by  the  day. 


Barbara  Heck  and  the  Card  Players.  ' 

Drawn  by  Jno.  Cassel. 


Contributions  from  the  Sisters  231 

The  wife  of  the  Maryland  pioneer  deserves  a  place  in  this 
company,  for  it  is  said  that  John  Evans,  the  first  member 
of  Strawbridge's  first  society,  owed  his  conversion  to  an 
earnest  appeal  on  the  subject  of  experimental  religion  made 
to  him  by  Mrs.  Strawbridge. 

When  the  time  came  to  open  a  house  for  the  preacher  in 
New  York — the  first  American  Methodist  parsonage — the 
women  were  almost  the  only  contributors ;  from  Mrs.  Taylor, 
who  loaned  "4  chairs,  1  night-chair,  5  pictures,  3  tables, 
pr.  And  Irons,  Chaving  dish,  Tongs  and  shovel,  and  two  Iron 
pots,"  to  Mrs.  Jarvis's  and  Mrs.  Bininger's  "one  green  win- 
dow curtain  "  each. 

Outside  of  New  York  city  the  women  had  as  yet  no  par- 
sonages to  furnish,  but  they  did  not  lack  opportunities  to 
show  their  zeal  for  the  cause  and  render  aid  and  comfort  to 
the  homeless  preachers.  The  reader  of  the  Journals  of  As- 
bury,  Garrettson,  or  other  early  Methodist  diarists  is  struck 
by  the  frequency  with  which,  in  the  absence  of  chapels,  a 
woman's  house  is  the  preaching  place.  Even  in  times  of  the 
anti-Tory  outcry,  when  well-disposed  men  shrank  from  har- 
boring the  noncombatant  preachers,  good  women  dared 
receive  them  into  their  houses  and  bind  up  their  wounds.  It 
was  the  pride  of  many  a  housekeeper  that  the  preachers  had 
learned  to  regard  her  guest  room  as  a  prophet's  chamber.  In 
1772,  when  Asbury  fell  sick  in  Philadelphia,  he  acknowledged 
the  tender  care  of  "dear  sister  Wilmer."  This  was  Mrs. 
Mary  Barker  Wilmer,  the  second  woman  to  lead  a  Methodist 
class  in  the  Quaker  city.  She  made  her  dwelling  a  home  of 
rest  for  the  preachers. 

When  Pilmoor  was  laboring  in  Philadelphia,  in  1770,  a 
Baptist  widow,  named  Mary  Thorn,  recently  arrived  from 
the  South,  seeking  a  house  for  worship,  was  providentially 


232  American  Methodism 

led  into  a  Methodist  meeting.  In  the  face  of  protests  from 
her  family  and  expulsion  from  her  Communion  she  became 
an  ardent  Methodist  and  a  leader  of  band  and  class.  Her 
autobiography  shows  the  perils  she  thus  incurred  from  riotous 
mobs :  "In  meeting  I  was  struck  down  nearly  lifeless.  At 
the  hazard  of  my  life  I  was  pitched  through  a  glass  door,  and 
when  a  leader  of  three  classes  I  was  reproached  with  the 
name  of  Mother  Confessor,  was  pelted  through  the  streets, 
and  stoned  in  effigy.  .  .  .  One,  armed,  stood  behind  the  class 
door  to  kill  me,  till  the  Lord  smote  him  with  a  better  weapon." 
Her  mother  cried  out,  ' '  These  birds  of  passage  have  bereaved 
me  of  my  children  ;  they  will  all  be  in  Bedlam."  Her  parents 
finally  gave  her  the  choice  of  leaving  the  Methodists  or  being 
disinherited  and  deserted.  "A  day  of  wormwood  and  gall," 
says  Mary  Thorn,  "when  my  mind  was  in  agony,  and  that 
word  of  our  Lord  thundered  in  my  soul,  '  He  that  loveth 
father  and  mother  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me.'  I 
cried  out,  '  It  is  enough,  Lord,  here  I  am,  do  with  me  as 
seemeth  good  in  thy  sight,  only  save  my  soul.'  Thus  I  gave 
my  final  answer  to  my  dear  mother,  and  never  saw  them 
more.  This  I  suffered  only  for  Methodism,  their  only  cause 
of  offense." 

Next  the  Baptist  elders  and  deacons  reasoned  with  Mrs. 
Thorn  to  renounce  the  Methodists.  Finally  she  and  others 
of  her  sect  who  were  under  the  same  accusation  were 
summoned  before  the  association.  After  trial  she  writes, 
"We  were  placed  before  the  Communion  table,  where  the 
ministers,  elders,  and  deacons  sat,  and  .  .  .  ten  of  us  stand- 
ing firm,  the  books  were  opened,  and  with  awful  denuncia- 
tions our  names  before  the  whole  congregation  were  erased." 
It  was  a  bitter  experience,  but  Mrs.  Thorn  exclaimed  in  that 
solemn  meeting,  "  Blessed  be  God,  ye  cannot  erase  my  name 


Marv  Thorn's  Steadfastness  233 

out  of  the  Lamb's  book  of  life  ;  we  know  whom  we  worship!" 
Atkinson  thinks  that  Mrs.  Thorn,  who  was  a  woman  of  marked 
intelligence,  supported  herself  by  teaching  school.  With 
her  bread  to  earn  and  her  elasses  and  bands  to  meet  and 
instruct,  this  remarkable  woman  had  time  for  other  work. 
In  the  midst  of  the  war,  when  the  city  was  vexed  by  plague 
and  famine,  she  went  to  the  hospitals  day  and  night  to  serve 
the  sick  and  wounded,  when  not  a  friend  would  brave  the 
infection.  "  Thus,"  she  says,  "  by  attending  them  in  their 
extremity,  I  sometimes  had  the  consolation  of  seeing  them  die 
happy."  When  the  redcoats  took  St.  George's  for  a  drill  hall 
her  dwelling  became  a  Methodist  sanctuary. 

In  1778  Mrs.  Thorn  married  an  English  sea  captain  named 
Parker,  and  removed  to  England,  where  her  career  of  useful- 
ness was  long  continued.  Many  other  names  are  preserved 
of  women  in  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  who  assisted  the 
early  preachers  by  opening  their  homes  and  by  obtaining  a 
hearing  for  them.  Some  of  them  even  accompanied  the 
preachers,  and  illustrated  the  sermon  with  their  testimony. 
Most  of  these  women,  whose  names  are  now  only  a  fragrant 
memory,  were  of  humble  station,  as  this  world  reckons  rank, 
and  beyond  the  bare  name  or  initial,  preserved  in  a  musty 
journal,  no  mention  of  them  is  made  in  earthly  records;  but 
certain  ladies  of  gentlest  birth,  representing  the  best  families 
of  the  colonial  aristocracy  of  Delaware  and  Maryland,  have 
left  more  lasting  impression  upon  Methodist  history. 

Of  all  the  saintly  women  of  this  period  no  names  are  more 
familiar  to- the  Methodist  student  than  those  of  Mary  White, 
Ann  Bassett,  and  Prudence  Gough.  Mrs.  White  was  the 
wife  of  that  Judge  Thomas  White  of  Kent  County,  Del., 
whose  fine  colonial  hip-roofed  mansion  often  sheltered 
the  wayworn  itinerant.     She  and  her  husband  were  faithful 


234  American  Methodism 

and  conscientious  members  of  the  Church  of  England  before 
the  Methodist  preachers  came  pointing  them  to  a  more  satis- 
factory experience.  Both  gladly  entered  upon  the  new  way, 
and  gave  themselves  unreservedly  to  the  cause.  The  lady 
was  as  courageous  as  she  was  talented,  and  throughout  the 
dark  days  when  the  Delaware  Methodists  were  unjustly  per- 
secuted as  Tories  she  was  a  mainstay  of  their  defense. 
When  her  husband  was  seized  by  the  authorities  for  harbor- 
ing Asbury  she  flung  herself  between  him  and  his  captors, 
passionately  asserting  his  patriotism.  It  was  her  persistency 
that  effected  his  ultimate  release.  No  preacher  passed  her 
way  without  making  her  house  his  home.  Her  dwelling  was 
open  to  the  preaching,  and  at  the  time  of  the  quarterly  meet- 
ing she  lodged  all  the  itinerants  that  her  rooftree  could  cover. 
She  took  part  in  public  services  of  the  society,  met  the  class, 
and  it  is  said  that  she  would  have  preached  had  not  Asbury 
frowned  on  such  an  innovation.  Once,  it  is  related,  she  went 
out  from  her  house  door  and  knelt  among  a  company  of  home- 
sick conscripts,  weeping  with  them  and  commending  their 
souls  to  the  care  of  the  heavenly  Father. 

It  was  at  her  house  that  her  husband's  friend,  Lawyer 
Richard  Bassett,  one  of  the  first  citizens  of  the  State — -after- 
ward signer  of  the  United  States  Constitution,  and  judge  and 
United  States  senator — first  made  the  acquaintance  of  As- 
bury, taking  his  hostess's  word  for  it  that  her  sober  guests 
were  "some  of  the  best  men  in  the  world."  So  pleased  was 
he  with  the  interview  that  he  invited  them  to  visit  him  at  his 
home  in  Dover,  though  the  prospect  of  their  coming  worried 
his  wife.  But  Asbury  soon  charmed  away  her  fears,  and  Mrs. 
Ann  Ennalls  Bassett  became  one  of  the  stanchest  friends  of 
the  Methodists  in  Delaware.  This  wealthy  family  possessed 
a   landed    estate    in    Cecil    County,    Md.,    Bohemia    Manor, 


Bohemia  Manor  and  Perry  Hall  235 

and  their  mansion  became  a  veritable  asylum  for  the  preach- 
ers. A  chapel  was  erected,  a  society  formed,  and  the  manor 
became  famous  for  the  pentecostal  outpourings  on  the  occa- 
sion of  quarterly  meetings.  Two  of  Mrs.  Bassett's  kins- 
women, the  Misses  Ennalls,  who  probably  received  their 
impulse  from  her,  have  the  credit  of  introducing  Methodism 
into  Dorchester  County,  Md.,  the  scene  of  Freeborn  Garrett- 
son's  bitterest  persecution  and  most  complete  victory. 

What  White's  mansion  and  Bohemia  Manor  were  in  the 
peninsula  Perry  Hall  was  to  the  Methodists  of  the  Western 
Shore.  Its  mistress,  Prudence  Ridgely  Gough,  was  the 
sister  of  Charles  Ridgely,  afterward  governor,  and  the  wife 
of  one  of  the  wealthiest  gentlemen  in  that  aristocratic  prov- 
ince. In  the  midst  of  the  reckless  gayety  and  worldly  dis- 
tractions which  characterized  the  social  circle  in  which  she 
moved  Prudence  Gough  found  a  calm  repose  in  "the  Metho- 
dists' God."  Her  husband,  whose  associations  conspired  to 
assail  his  religious  character,  declared,  after  his  reclama- 
tion, "  O,  if  my  wife  had  ever  given  way  to  the  world,  I 
should  have  been  lost!"  Mrs.  Gough  herself  did  not  shrink 
from  leading  the  daily  religious  services  in  the  household 
chapel,  at  which  all  persons  on  the  estate,  field  hands  and 
guests  alike,  were  expected  to  be  present.  She  made  her 
country  seat — then  one  of  the  most  elegant  in  America — the 
abode  of  simplicity  and  piety  as  well  as  of  whole-hearted 
hospitality.  The  preachers  were  the  most  welcome  sojourn- 
ers there,  and  in  its  apartments  Coke  and  Asbury  completed 
their  preparations  for  the  historic  Christmas  Conference  of 
1784. 

The  conspicuous  social  position  of  the  Whites,  the  Bassetts, 
and  the  Goughs  has  given  them  a  large  place  in  the  eye  of 
historians,  but  the  family  traditions  of  those  times  preserve 


236  American  Methodism 

the  names  of  numberless  women  not  a  whit  below  them  in 
devotion  to  the  principles  of  the  struggling  sect  which  was 
everywhere  spoken  against.  Gossipy  Lednum  tells  of  a  ves- 
tryman's daughter  who  was  conscience-stricken  by  hearing  a 
preacher  declare  that  dancing  was  a  sin.  She  gave  in  her 
name  to  the  Methodist  society,  and  her  tattling  brother  told 
his  father  that  Rhoda  had  disgraced  the  family  by  "  joining 
the  new  preacher."  But  the  worldly-wise  old  gentleman  took 
the  news  calmly.  "If  the  Methodists  disown  their  people 
for  dancing,"  said  he,  "  they  will  soon  be  clear  of  Rhoda. 
She  will  dance."  Garrettson  made  her  see  that  she  needed 
not  so  much  to  do  or  do  without  certain  things  as  to  have 
the  sense  of  pardon  through  Christ.  This  she  received  with 
great  joy.  Her  father  remonstrated  with  her  for  her  altered 
habits;  but  she  replied,  "  I  want  to  go  to  heaven,  and  I  can- 
not go  in  my  sins."  Ultimately  her  prayers  and  winning 
example  brought  the  entire  family  into  the  Methodist  fold. 

The  same  chronicler  affirms  that  when  Miss  Ennalls,  of 
Dorchester  County,  Md.,  was  converted,  her  family,  who 
had  never  seen  a  Methodist,  thought  her  demented.  Yet 
it  was  through  her  influence  that  the  county  was  first  opened 
to  Methodist  preaching.  Tradition  says  that  Mrs.  Rogers,  a 
blind  woman,  introduced  Methodism  into  the  county  of  Queen 
Anne,  in  the  same  State. 

This  record  of  personal  devotion  might  be  greatly  enlarged 
if  space  permitted  the  mention  of  the  Methodist  women  of 
this  first  period  who  testified  by  every  means  at  their  com- 
mand their  hearty  allegiance  to  the  cause  of  spiritual  religion. 
In  this  righteous  service  daughters  braved  the  anger  of 
parents,  women  of  fashion  put  on  the  plain  garb  of  the 
Methodists  and  set  their  hands  to  works  of  mercy  and  help ; 
overworked  housewives  gave  themselves  to  hospitality  for  the 


New  Fields  of  Work  237 

wifeless  and  homeless  itinerants:  delieate  women  resetted 
them  from  violent  men  ;  and  timid  sisters  lifted  their  voices 
in  prayer  and  praise  and  in  effective  testimony  to  the  God  ^i 
all  grace.  The  grand  development  of  woman's  work  not 
only  in  the  Methodist  Church,  but  throughout  the  Protestant 
churches  of  America,  is  in  large  measure  the  outgrowth  of  the 
Methodist  system,  which  opened  to  the  Christian  women 
such  fields  of  usefulness  as  thev  had  never  before  entered. 


CHAPTER   XXV 
The  Brethren 

Filling  up  the  Ranks. — The  Spirit  of  the  Preachers.— Acces- 
sions, 1773- 1784.— Notable  Accessions.— Sketches  and  Personal 
Incidents. 

THE  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  not  only  caused  the 
withdrawal  of  the  English  preachers,  but  prevented 
other  trained  Wesleyan  evangelists  from  coming  to 
these  shores.  Yet  even  in  war  times  there  was  a  growing 
demand  for  men  to  supply  the  circuits,  ever  extending  and 
subdividing  as  the  work  spread  into  new  localities.  It  was 
vain  to  expect  aid  from  the  colonial  clergy  of  the  Church  of 
England,  though,  had  all  its  ministers  shared  the  liberal 
spirit  of  Jarratt,  McRoberts,  and  McGaw,  this  channel  might 
have  brought  relief.  The  people  were  turning  eagerly  from 
the  dry  husks  of  formal  services  and  asking  for  the  bread  of 
life  and  a  i-eligion  which  they  could  enjoy.  There  was  press- 
ing need  for  evangelists,  and  scanty  time  to  educate  and  train 
them.  The  Conference  must  let  the  whitening  fields  go  un- 
garnered,  or  take  such  men  as  came  to  its  hand,  press  the 
reaping-hook  into  their  grasp,  and  thrust  them  out  to  labor 
in  God's  name.  Scores  of  raw  youths  were  thus  commis- 
sioned.    They  stepped  out  of  every  walk  in  life;   there  were 

rough   hands    from  the    plow   and   the  soft-handed    sons    of 

238 


Changing  Personnel  239 

gentlemen;  a  few — and  none  surpassed  these  in  moving-  sin- 
ners— were  vicious  men  whom  the  winged  word  of  some 
earnest  preacher  had  stopped  in  a  career  of  sin  and  turned  to 
the  service  of  their  fellow-men. 

Dozens  of  names  on  the  rolls  of  these  early  Conferences 
appear  once,  twice,  thrice,  then  disappear  without  a  word  of 
explanation.  Those  who  married  must  needs  locate,  for  the 
feeble  societies  could  not  support  a  preacher's  family.  As- 
bury,  celibate  himself,  bitterly  bemoaned  the  havoc  that 
matrimony  played  among  his  best  preachers.  The  meager 
records  tell  of  some  who  fell  victims  to  the  hardships  of  travel 
and  exposure — the  lot  of  the  men  who  lived  in  the  saddle. 
Preaching  the  Gospel  was  not  a  profession  or  a  means  of 
livelihood  to  the  early  itinerants,  and  many  who  flit  through 
the  Minutes  merely  came  into  the  work  temporarily,  to  meet 
some  urgent  need ;  and  in  this  roll  of  emergency  there  are 
names  that  shine  among  the  brightest  in  the  Methodist 
galaxy,  preachers  who  gave  long  lives  of  strenuous  endeavor 
to  the  cause  which  kindled  their  youthful  ardor. 

"  I  have  never,  since  I  knew  the  Lord,  seen  anything  in 
this  world  worth  living  for  an  hour  but  to  prepare  and  to  as- 
sist others  to  prepare  for  that  glorious  kingdom  which  shall 
be  revealed  at  the  appearing  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ."  The  words  are  of  William  "Watters,  but  the  same 
sentiment  is  written  largely  in  the  lives  of  many  of  his  self- 
denying  fellow-preachers.  Even  when  circumstances  forced 
them  to  desist  from  traveling  they  usually  employed  their 
gifts  by  preaching  even,'  Sunday,  and  often  on  week  days. 
Thus  Watters  and  Gatch  as  Virginia  planters  were  scarcely 
less  useful  than  they  had  been  when  in  the  active  work. 

In  the  long  roll  of  the  preachers  whose  names  figure  in  the 
Minutes  of  these  years,  1 773-1 784,  are  many  who  are  men- 


240  American  Methodism 

tioned  but  once  and  then  slip  out  of  sight.  There  are  other 
famous  names,  like  John  Dickins  and  the  great  elders,  James 
O'Kelly,  Jesse  Lee,  Freeborn  Garrettson,  Francis  Poythress, 
Philip  Bruce,  Reuben  Ellis,  Nelson  Reed,  and  Thomas  Ware, 
for  whom  these  years  served  as  a  training  school  for  future 
responsibilities.  A  few,  like  Caleb  Pedicord,  lived  out  their 
lives  in  these  wilderness  years  and  died  with  scarcely  a  Pisgah- 
sight  of  the  promised  land  in  which  American  Methodism 
should  be  a  great  and  conquering  Church.  Six  preachers 
were  admitted  in  1775  :  William  Duke,  "  a  friend  of  Captain 
Webb;"  John  Wade,  Daniel  Ruff,  Isaac  Rollins,  Samuel 
Spragg,  and  Edward  Drumgole.  Drumgole  was  a  con- 
verted Romanist,  one  of  the  first  of  those  silvery  Celtic  ora- 
tors who  have  been  so  popular  among  us.  He  labored  until 
1786  on  the  wide  circuits  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and 
some  years  after  his  marriage  located  in  the  latter  State, 
though  he  never  lost  his  power  as  a  revivalist.  He  died  in 
1836,  leaving  a  family  distinguished  in  Southern  public 
affairs.  Two  years  later,  1777,  the  Conference  received 
Nicholas  Watters,  William's  earnest  brother ;  John  Sigman, 
Joseph  Hartley,  who  preached  through  the  gratings  of  his 
jail;  James  Foster,  William  Wren,  Thomas  McClure,  Free- 
born Garrettson,  and  Isham  Tatum.  Garrettson's  career  as 
the  marshal  of  Methodism  along  the  Hudson  falls  in  a  later 
period,  but  Tatum's  activity  lasted  but  a  few  years.  He  was 
a  North  Carolinian,  and  an  orator  of  unusual  brilliancy.  He 
served  in  his  native  State  and  in  Virginia,  where,  after  marry- 
ing, he  located  in  178 1.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  about  1836, 
he  was  one  of  the  oldest  Methodist  preachers  in  the  world. 
Francis  Poythress,  who  was  admitted  on  trial  in  1776,  was  to 
become  a  pillar  in  the  early  Church  in  the  wilderness  beyond 
the  mountains. 


War  Time  Recruits  241 

The  reinforcements  for  1778  include  Joseph  Cromwell, 
William  Gill,  of  Delaware — the  intellectual  tailor,  of  whom 
Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  said,  "  lie  is  the  greatest  divine  I  ever 
heard;"  his  friend,  John  Tunnell,  who  was  to  pour  out  his 
life  for  the  Tennessee  mountaineers;  John  Littlejohn,  Sam- 
uel Strong,  Thomas  Chew,  Carter  Cole,  and  John  Dickins — 
sage  in  counsel,  the  organizer  of  the  publishing  interests  of 
American  Methodism.  Among  those  received  on  trial  in  this 
year  were  Henry  Willis,  Asbury's  saintly  friend ;  James 
O'Kelly,  the  pugnacious  rebel  against  his  episcopal  authority; 
and  the  brave  and  beloved  Richard  Ivy. 

As  the  levies  become  more  numerous  rare  names  only  can 
be  noted:  Leroy  Cole,  who  started  out  on  a  half  century  of 
service ;  Reuben  Ellis,  one  of  the  pioneer  elders  of  North 
Carolina ;  diminutive  Philip  Cox,  who  carried  all  his  effects 
in  a  linen  wallet  and  went  afoot  for  want  of  a  horse ;  John 
Haggerty,  a  trophy  of  John  King's  zeal ;  and  stout  Nelson 
Reed,  renowned  for  his  assertive  Americanism  and  for  pur- 
veying such  plain  spiritual  victual  that  he  was  termed  "  the 
bacon  and  cabbage  preacher." 

Two  members  of  the  class  of  1 78 1  were  Joseph  Everett, 
who  had  been  reclaimed  from  a  reckless  life,  and  who,  under 
Pedicord's  persuasive  influence,  became  a  mighty  evangelist ; 
and  Jeremiah  Lambert,  whom  the  Christmas  Conference  was 
to  send  out  as  a  foreign  missionary  four  years  later. 

In  the  three  years  before  the  Christmas  Conference  of  1784 
some  of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the  infant  Church 
entered  the  itinerant  service :  Peter  Moriarty,  a  converted 
Roman  Catholic ;  Beverly  Allen,  who,  having  preached  Christ 
to  thousands  in  the  South,  should  himself  become  a  castaway  ; 
James  Haw,  first  captain  of  the  Methodist  vanguard  in  Ken- 
tucky;   Philip  Bruce,  of  North  Carolina,  a  fiery  preacher  and 


242 


American   Methodism 


wise  administrator;  John  Easter,  "  the  Benjamin  Abbott  of 
the  South,"  and  the  spiritual  father  of  William  MeKendree 
and  Enoch  George;  Woolman  Hickson,  the  founder  of 
Brooklyn  Methodism ;  Jesse  Lee,  the  apostle  of  New  Eng- 
land;  Isaac  Smith,  a  hero  of  South  Carolina;  Caleb  Boyer, 
of  Delaware,    "the   Paul    of    the  old  itinerancy;"    William 


FROM    THE    DRAWING 


STORY    OF    OLD    SANDS    STREET    CHURCH 


REV.    WOOLMAN    HICKSON'S    FIRST    SERMON    IN    BROOKLYN. 

While  stationed  in  New  York  Mr.  Hickson  came   to  Brooklyn  and  preached   from  a  table  in  New 
Street  (afterward  Sands  Street),  near  the  site  of  the  later  Sands  Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Phcebus,  preacher,  physician,  and  editor;  Ignatius  Pigman, 
whose  oratorial  successes  diverted  him  to  the  law ;  Ira  Ellis, 
in  whose  uncultivated  mind  Asbury  discerned  the  talents  of 
a  Jefferson;  and  Thomas  Ware,  Pedicord's  most  distin- 
guished convert — pastor,  presiding  elder,  and  agent  of  the 
Book  Concern. 

While   some   of  these   names  will  reappear  in  connection 
with  the  history  of  the  events  of  which  they  were  a  part,  the 


The   First   Obituary  243 

most  of  them  must  be  dismissed  with  bare  mention  or  a  brief 
note  of  some  incident  expressive  of  their  character  and  work. 

Caleb  Pedicord  was,  for  the  times,  a  singularly  refined  and 
gentle  soul,  a  sweet  singer,  and  an  exponent  of  that  love  he 
preached.  He  was  a  young  Marylander,  whose  heart  Straw- 
bridge  had  touched  and  whose  lips  had  felt  the  eoal  from  the 
altar.  When  urged  to  become  an  itinerant  he  shrank  back. 
"What!  my  son,"  urged  Asbury,  "have  you  no  conviction 
that  you  should  follow  the  direction  of  Him  who  commis- 
sioned you  to  preach!  Has  the  charge  given  to  the  disciples 
been  revoked?  Is  the  world  evangelized?"  Accepting  his 
duty  in  1777,  Pedicord  preached  out  his  short  life  span  in 
Maryland.  Delaware,  New  Jersey,  and  Virginia,  and  the  ruf- 
fianly assaults  which  he  suffered  in  time  of  war  could  not  di- 
vert or  stop  him.  Joseph  Everett  and  Thomas  Ware  came  into 
the  ministry  through  his  exertions.  It  was  to  the  latter  that 
he  wrote  in  his  last  days  the  beautiful  letter  in  which  occurs 
his  remarkable  forecast  of  Methodism  :  "It  has  lived  through 
the  war,  and  will  live  through  all  future  time.  Christendom 
will  become  more  enlightened,  will  feel  a  divine  impulse,  and 
a  way  will  be  cast  on  which  itinerants  may  swiftly  move,  and 
in  sufficient  numbers  proclaim  the  commands  of  God."  The 
obituary  notice  of  this  saintly  man  is  the  first  ever  printed  in 
the  Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  It  is  in 
1785,  and  three  lines  amply  suffice  for  his  scant  eulogy: 
"Caleb  Pedicord,  a  man  of  sorrows,  and,  like  his  Master, 
acquainted  with  grief ;  but  a  man  dead  to  the  world  and 
much  devoted  to  God." 

John  Haggerty  had  been  rigidly  moral,  and  observed  the 
form  of  godliness  before  John  King  opened  his  heart  to 
vital  religion.  He  traveled  and  preached,  chiefly  in  his 
native  Maryland,  until  1792,  when  he  began  a  second  course 


244  American  Methodism 

of  usefulness  as  a  local  preacher,  active  in  every  Christian 
service,  and  dying-  in  1823,  ripe  in  years  and  rich  in  grace. 

Another  Marylander,  Nelson  Reed,  survived  all  who  were 
members  of  Conference.  He  joined  in  1779,  an(l  was  re" 
puted  the  dean  of  the  connection  when  he  died,  in  1840.  He 
was  short,  strong,  and  as  ' '  compact  as  a  round  shot,  and  neai-ly 
as  irresistible  when  his  aim  was  taken."  The  floor  of  the 
Conference  suited  him  better  than  his  pulpit,  and  his  name 
is  connected  with  some  of  the  most  notable  legislation  of 
the  early  days.  His  tilts  with  Bishop  Coke  display  his 
sturdy  independence.  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia 
were  the  scene  of  his  labors,  where  he  excelled  as  a  presid- 
ing elder. 

Joseph  Everett,  on  the  other  hand,  was  great  as  a  preacher, 
exhibiting  a  degree  of  that  sublime  power  which  marked  the 
eloquence  of  Whitefield,  who  first  reclaimed  him  from  a 
profligate  life.  He  was  forty-eight  years  old  when  he  began 
to  preach,  and  when  failing  strength  forced  him  out  of  the 
ranks,  in  1804,  his  bold  invectives  against  sin  and  sinners 
and  his  glowing  pictures  of  the  joys  of  salvation  were  well 
known  through  the  middle  Atlantic  districts.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  blunt  and  rough  preachers  of  his  time,  but  his 
success  was  undoubted.  He  died  at  Cambridge,  in  his  native 
State,  Maryland,  in  1809. 

Philip  Bruce,  or  deBruise — for  he  was  one  of  the  Carolina 
Huguenots — was  born  near  King's  Mountain,  was  with  the 
patriot  army  in  the  battle  fought  there,  and  became  a  Metho- 
dist preacher  in  1781.  He  is  described  as  a  tall  man,  with  a 
stern  and  dignified  countenance  which  masked  a  kindly 
heart.  His  fine  judgment,  strong  sense  of  justice,  and  force 
of  character  fitted  him  admirably  for  his  long  service  as  pre- 
siding elder  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.     In    18 17  he  be- 


William  Phoebus 


245 


came  superannuated,   and   removed   from   Virginia  to  Ten- 
nessee, where  he  died  in  1826. 

William  Phoebus,  whose  ministerial  labors  lay  chiefly  in 
New  York  and  on  Long-  Island,  had  some  qualities  not  com- 
mon to  his  breth- 
ren. He  was  a 
practicing  physi- 
cian in  New  York 
city,  and  a  man 
whose  studies  took 
him  outside  the  in- 
dispensable works 
on  Wesleyan  theol- 
ogy. His  own 
style  in  preaching 
was  too  learned  for 
great  popularity, 
and  he  reserved  his 
choicest  scorn  for 
pulpit  theatricals. 
"Pugh!"  he  ex- 
claimed to  one  who 
marveled  at  the 
vogue  of  such  sen- 


ty^M 


sational  sermons, 
"  If  I  were  to  pull 
off  my  old  boot  and 

throw  it  into  the  air  and  cry,  Hurrah  !  hurrah  !  I  should  soon 
have  the  crowd  around  me."  His  reverential  manner  was 
most  impressive,  and  he  would  not  speak  the  name  of  his 
Redeemer  without  recognizing  its  sanctity  by  inclining  his 
head  or  uncovering. 


246  American  Methodism 

The  year  in  which  Coke  came  over,  with  Wesley's  commis- 
sion for  the  organization  of  the  Methodist  societies  into  a 
Church,  brought  in  a  group  of  noble  men.  Wilson  Lee,  of 
Delaware,  was  one.  He  offered  himself  in  1784,  and,  though 
of  slender  physical  resources,  took  work  for  nine  years  in  the 
roughest  frontier  circuits  of  Pennsylvania,  western  Virginia, 
Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  hazarding  his  life  in  the  Indian 
country  in  order  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  settlements  on 
Western  waters.  In  1793  he  was  relieved  of  this  exhausting 
duty,  but  his  health  was  shattered  forever.  He  lived  to  do 
faithful  service  on  the  seaboard,  and  his  last  appointment,  as 
presiding  elder  on  Baltimore  District,  was  marked  by  a  great 
revival.  The  Conference  obituary  of  1805  speaks  of  his 
neatness  of  dress,  affability  of  manner,  fervent  spirit,  and 
consuming  zeal. 

When  Isaac  Smith  came  up  to  the  Virginia  Conference,  in 
1784,  for  admission,  he  was  opposed  on  the  ground  that  he 
lacked  ' '  gifts. "  But  Asbury  befriended  the  young  Virginian, 
whose  forehead  was  scarred  by  a  British  bullet.  He  was 
taken  on  trial  and  sent  to  North  Carolina.  He  was  a  fine 
figure,  his  features  combining  gentleness  and  dignity,  and 
his  robust  physique  calculated  to  meet  the  strain  of  the  mis- 
sionary work  in  the  Carolinas,  where  he  was  very  effective. 
His  preaching  was  plain  and  practical.  "  He  had  many  texts," 
says  one  who  knew  him,  "but  only  one  subject,  and  that 
was  love !  "  His  marriage  forced  him  to  leave  the  traveling 
ministry  in  1796.  He  settled  in  Camden,  S.  C,  where 
he  lived  twenty-four  years  of  abundant  usefulness  and  uni- 
versal respect.  In  1820  he  returned  to  the  itinerancy  and 
spent  five  years  on  a  mission  to  the  Creek  Indians,  where 
he  was  greatly  beloved.  He  died  on  a  Sabbath  morning  in 
July,  1834. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 


A  Handful  of  Corn 


A  Corncrib  Prophecy.— 1775  and  1784.— Conference  Legislation 
1775-1784. — Itinerancy,  Salaries,  Slaveholding,  Dram  Drink- 
ing, Early  Rising.— Changes  in  Personnel.— The  War  as  a  Dis- 
seminator of  Methodism. — Beyond  the  Mountains. 


WHEX  Barratt's  Chapel,  in  Delaware,  was  built,  in 
1780 — a  triumph  of  faith  in  the  midst  of  discour- 
agements— it  ■was  "the  grandest  country  chapel 
in  America."  Its  dimensions  were  forty-two  by  forty-eight 
feet,  and  it  is  reported  that  one  who  stood  by  wagged  his 
head,'  saying  "'twas  no  use  to  put  up  so  large  a  building 
for  the  Methodists;  for  after  the  Y\-ar  a  corncrib  would  hold 
'em  all."  Never  was  false  prophet  so  confounded  by  events  ; 
never  did  a  handful  of  corn  in  the  earth  upon  the  top  of  the 
mountains  yield  more  bountiful  harvest. 

According  to  the  Minutes  of  the  Conference  held  at  Phila- 
delphia, 1775,  twenty  preachers — one  half  of  them  mission- 
aries from  the  British  Wesleyan  body — were  appointed  to 
ten  circuits,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Trenton,  Greenwich, 
Chester,  Kent,  Baltimore,  Frederick,  Norfolk,  and  Bruns- 
wick, scattered  along  the  seaboard  from  the  Hudson  to  Cape 

247 


248 


American  Methodism 


Hatteras.  The  total  number. of  persons  "  in  society  "  was 
3,148,  one  half  of  whom  were  in  Maryland  and  Virginia. 
This  was  the  status  of  American  Methodism  in  the  year 
in  which  the  war  broke  out. 

Contrast  with  these  meager  statistics  the  figures  reported 


DRAWN  BY  J.  P.  OAVIS. 


FROM  A  WOODCUT. 


BARRATT  S    CHAPEL. 


"  The  grandest  country  chapel  in   America."     Where  Coke  and  Asbury  met.     One  mile 
from  Frederica,  eleven  miles  southeast  of  Dover,  Del. 

in  the  Conference  Minutes  of  1784,  the  first  Conference  after 
the  war. 

The  Minutes  of  1775  hardly  fill  two  pages  in  the  printed 
volume  of  the  "  Old  Minutes."  The  Minutes  for  1784  require 
four  times  that  space.  Although  but  six  of  the  ten  early 
circuits  are  recognized  by  name,  the  whole  number  of  cir- 
cuits arose  to   forty-six,  traveled  by  eighty-three  preachers, 


Adapted  Wesleyanism  249 

mostly  American  born.  The  numbers  in  membership  lacked 
but  twelve  of  the  round  15,000;  the  State  of  Maryland  alone, 
where  the  opposition  had  been  most  determined,  returning 
more  Methodists  than  were  in  the  whole  western  world  nine 
years  before.  Many  of  the  new  circuits  were  subdivisions 
and  extensions  of  the  old;  but  such  names  as  Juniata,  Hol- 
stein,  Yadkin,  Tar  River,  Camden,  Redstone,  Wilmington, 
and  Pee  Dee  suggest  that  the  preachers  had  found  openings 
to  the  southward,  had  scaled  the  mountain  wall  on  the  west, 
and  that  already  Methodism  was  keeping  step  with  the  march 
of  empire. 

As  we  turn  the  yellowed  leaves  of  the  early  Minutes  of  the 
Conferences  we  find  indications  here  and  there  of  the  devel- 
opment which  was  going  on  unceasingly.  New  plans  were 
being  tried;  the  Wesleyan  methods  which  had  served  so  well 
in  England  were  being  adjusted  to  the  changed  conditions 
of  the  new  country. 

The  "great  iron  wheel "  spun  fast  in  1775  when  certain 
city  preachers  were  to  exchange  appointments  each  quarter, 
others  "  at  half  the  year's  end,"  and  still  others  "  as  often  as 
the  assistant  thinks  proper."  A  year  or  two  later,  1777,  in 
consequence  of  abuses  in  the  preaching  of  funeral  sermons, 
the  preachers  decided  to  "  inform  every  society  that  we  will 
not  preach  any  but  for  those  who,  we  have  reason  to  believe, 
died  in  the  fear  and  favor  of  God." 

The  first  itinerants  concerned  themselves  little  about  this 
world's  goods.  They  were  generally  young  and  unmarried, 
and  as  their  long  circuits  and  daily  preaching  appointments 
kept  them  in  the  saddle,  they  had  no  need  for  parsonage 
comforts.  In  1778  the  Conference  appointed  two  stewards 
or  treasurers  for  the  connection,  William  Moore  and  Henry 
Fry,   and  fixed  a  uniform    salary   or  "quarterage"   of   £S, 


250 


American  Methodism 


Virginia  currency,  for  the  traveling  preachers.  The  Flu- 
vanna section  of  the  Conference  of  1779  decided  that  "no 
preacher  who  is  able  to  travel  and  does  not "  should  receive 
quarterage,  and  declared  furthermore  that  "  those  preachers 


FROM    THE    PLATE 


OS'S    '"HISTORY   OF    AMERICA." 

MAP   OF    UNITED    STATES,    PUBLISHED    IN    1785. 

Showing  the  divisions  according  to  the  ordinance  of   1784.     The  plate  appeared  in  Francis 
Bailey's  Pocket  Almanac  for  1785,  published  at  Philadelphia. 

who  receive  money  by  subscription"  should  be  viewed  "as 
excluded  from  the  Methodist  Connection."  The  Northern 
session  of  this  same  year  confirmed  Asbury  as  "  general  as- 
sistant," with  practically  absolute  authority,  at  the  same  time 
requiring  the  traveling  preachers  "to  meet  the  classes" 
wherever  possible.  One  question  in  the  Minutes  of  this 
Conference  shows  how  early  the  American  Methodists  began 
to  turn   their   attention   to  the  care  of  the  young.      It  runs. 


Stringent   Rules  251 

■•  What  shall  be  done  with  the  children?  "  And  the  answer 
is,  "Meet  them  once  a  fortnight,  and  examine  the  parents 
with  regard  to  their  conduct  toward  them." 

The  Minutes  of  the  Conference  at  Baltimore  in  17S0  note, 
"All  the  preachers  to  change  after  six  months."  One  ques- 
tion and  answer  made  it  the  duty  of  the  assistant  to  establish 
uniformity  and  security  in  the  method  of  "settling  all  the 
preaehinghouses  by  trustees,"  who  should  "meet  once  in 
half  a  year  and  keep  a  register  of  their  proceedings."  All 
the  deeds  of  trust  must  be  modeled  after  the  improved  Wes- 
leyan  form.  Each  traveling  preacher  was  required  to  take 
a  license  from  Asbury  at  each  Conference,  and  furthermore 
the  local  preachers  and  exhorters  were  "  strictly  enjoined 
that  no  one  presume  to  speak  in  public  "  without  frequent 
examination  "  by  the  assistant  with  respect  to  his  life,  his 
qualifications,  and  reception." 

If  the  foregoing  enactments  are  stamped  with  the  person- 
ality of  Francis  Asbury,  what  shall  be  said  of  those  which 
follow : 

Question  11.  "Ought  not  all  our  preachers  to  make  con- 
science of  rising  at  four,  and  if  not,  yet  at  five  (is  it  not  a 
shame  for  any  preacher  to  be  in  bed  till  six  in  the  morn- 
ing?)"     Answer:    "  Undoubtedly  they  ought! 

One  question  is  reminiscent  of  the  then  living  subject  of 
the  sacraments.  It  granted  to  all  the  friendly  clergy  of  the 
Church  of  England  the  privilege  "to  preach  or  administer 
the  ordinances  in  our  preaehinghouses  or  chapels"  at  the 
request  of  the  people. 

The  next  question  touches  a  fresh  problem.  Until  this 
time  most  of  the  preachers  had  been  young  men  and  bache- 
lors. When  a  man  married  he  usually  dropped  out  of  the 
Confer-enee.      But  this  question  of   1780  reads:  "  What  pro- 


252  American  Methodism 

vision  shall  we  make  for  the  wives  of  married  preachers?" 
and  is  literally  answered :  ' '  They  shall  receive  an  equiva- 
lent with  their  husbands  in  quarterage,  if  they  stand  in  need." 

This  Conference  adopted  more  rules  than  any  of  its 
predecessors.  One  paragraph  made  it  the  duty  of  the 
preachers  "to  speak  to  every  person,  one  by  one,  in  the 
family  where  they  lodge,  before  prayer,  if  time  will  permit; 
or  give  a  family  exhortation  after  reading  a  chapter." 

For  a  body  assembled  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line 
these  men  spoke  very  freely  upon  a  delicate  subject : 

Question  16,  "Ought  not  this  Conference  to  require  those 
traveling  preachers  who  hold  slaves  to  give  promises  to  set 
them  free?"  was  answered  "Yes!"  as  was  Question  17: 
' '  Does  this  Conference  acknowledge  that  slavery  is  contrary 
to  the  laws  of  God,  man,  and  nature,  and  hurtful  to  society, 
contrary  to  the  dictates  of  conscience  and  pure  religion, 
and  doing  that  which  we  would  not  others  should  do  to  us 
and  ours?  Do  we  pass  our  disapprobation  on  all  our  friends 
who  keep  slaves,  and  advise  their  freedom?  " 

To  the  question,  "  Do  we  disapprove  of  the  practice  of  dis- 
tilling grain  into  liquor?  Shall  we  disown  our  friends  who 
will  not  renounce  the  practice?  "  the  answer  was  "  Yes." 

That  some  of  the  preachers  on  Southern  circuits  had  been 
perplexed  by  conditions  there  is  betokened  by  Question  25, 
providing  that  the  assistant  ' '  should  meet  the  colored  peo- 
ple himself,  and  appoint  as  helpers  in  his  absence  proper 
white  persons,  and  not  suffer  them  to  stay  late  and  meet  by 
themselves." 

The  Conference  of  1781,  the  first  after  the  threatened 
secession,  began  at  Choptank,  Del.,  and  ended  at  Baltimore, 
Md.  The  preachers  pledged  themselves  "to  preach  the  old 
Methodist  doctrine  and  strictly  enforce  the  discipline,"  and 


Conference  Studies  253 

"firmly  resolved  to  discountenance  separation."  The  one 
year's  trial  of  preachers  was  doubled,  "considering  how 
young  they  are  in  age,  grace,  and  gifts,"  and  restrictions 
were  set  upon  the  custom  of  itinerants  in  calling-  local  preach- 
ers into  the  regular  work  without  consulting  Asbury  "  or  the 
elder  assistants." 

The  preachers  were  bidden  "  to  examine  every  person  ad- 
mitted on  trial  for  three  months,,  first,  whether  they  have  been 
turned  out;"  if  so,  they  were  not  to  be  received  without  full 
evidence  of  repentance. 

In  one  question  of  this  year  we  detect  the  germ  of  a  course 
of  Conference  studies:  "Ought  not  the  preachers  often  to 
read  the  Rules  of  the  Societies,  The  Character  of  a  Metho- 
dist, and  The  Plain  Account  of  Christian  Perfection,  if  they 
have  got  them?"  Answer:  "Yes."  Another  innovation, 
which  savors  of  Asbury' s  orderly  nature,  required  the  assistant 
"to  give  a  circumstantial  account  of  the  circuit,  in  writing, 
both  of  societies  and  local  preachers,  with  a  plan,  to  his 
successor."  The  circuit  preacher  was  also  to  notify  the 
several  societies  of  their  apportionment  for  raising  the 
preacher's  salary,  "  and  urge  them  to  give  according  to  their 
several  abilities." 

The  Conference  of  1782  adopted  a  well-considered  plan  for 
the  exchange  of  the  preachers  at  the  end  of  six  months. 
The  Conference  of  1774  had  authorized  a  general  collection 
at  Easter  "  to  pay  chapel  debts  and  relieve  needy  preachers." 
In  1775  it  was  ruled  that  the  superintendent's  deficiencies 
should  be  paid  out  of  the  yearly  collection,  as  well  as  the 
preachers'  expenses  from  Conference  to  their  new  appoint- 
ments. But  in  the  Minutes  of  1782  for  the  first  time  the 
amount  of  "  the  yearly  collection,"  £42  16^.  3c/.,  is  given.  It 
had  been  expended  "  on  the  necessities  of  the  preachers." 


254  American   Methodism 

"  To  revive  the  work  "  it  was  decided  to  hold  evening  meet- 
ings  and  preach  in  the  mornings  in  places  convenient. 

That  money  was  already  accruing  as  the  result  of  the  sales 
of  YVesleyan  books  appears  from  the  provision  that  each 
preacher  should  report  to  Conference  the  amount  of  support 
received,  that  the  deficiency  might  "be  supplied  by  the 
profits  arising  from  the  sale  of  the  books,  and  the  Conference 
collections." 

Measures  were  taken  to  silence  irregular  preachers,  and  to 
guard  the  societies  from  private  impostors  every  newcomer 
professing  to  be  a  Methodist  must  show  a  certificate  from  his 
former  preacher. 

This  Conference  "  disannulled  "  the, former  divisive  action 
with  regard  to  the  sacraments,  and  indorsed  Asbury  as  pres- 
ident of  the  Conference  and  general  head  of  the  work  in 
America. 

The  married  preachers  received  further  attention  at  the 
Conference  of  1783,  when  the  sum  of  £206  was  apportioned 
to  be  raised  for  the  wives  of  the  preachers,  namely,  "Sis- 
ters Forrest.  Mair,  Wyatt,  Thomas,  Everett,  Kimble,  Ellis, 
Watters,  Haggerty,  Pigman,  and  Dickins."  The  apportion- 
ments ranged  from  £4  to  /30. 

The  struggle  with  the  slaveholders  was  still  on.  Extreme 
measures  against  slaveholding  local  preachers  were  postponed 
a  twelvemonth,  the  assistants  meanwhile  "  to  deal  faithfully 
and  plainlv  with  each  one  and  report  to  the  next  Conference." 

The  temperance  utterance  was  growing  more  emphatic. 
"By  no  means  should  our  friends  be  permitted  to  make 
spirituous  liquors,  sell,  and  drink  them  in  drams.  We  think 
it  wrong  in  its  nature  and  consequences;  and  desire  all  our 
preachers  to  teach  the  people  by  precept  and  example  to  put 
away  the  evil." 


Sundry  Enactments  255 

The  close  of  hostilities  with  England  was  encouraging  im- 
migration. The  American  Conference  resolved  to  receive 
no  alleged  European  Methodists  without  proper  credentials. 
Two  of  the  quarterly  fasts,  as  appointed  in  the  previous  year, 
were  at  this  Conference  changed  to  "days  of  thanksgiving 
for  our  public  peace,  temporal  and  spiritual  prosperity,  and 
for  the  glorious  work  of  God." 

For  the  second  time  two  general  stewards  were  named, 
the  men  being  "  Samuel  Owings  and  John  Orick." 

The  Minutes  of  the  regular  Conference  of  1784,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  General  Conference  or  constitutional  con- 
vention which  met  at  Baltimore  at  Christmastide,  exhibited 
a  number  of  new  features.  In  case  of  emergency,  and  in  the 
absence  of  Asbury,  any  three  assistants  might  "call  to  ac- 
count, change,  suspend,  or  receive  a  preacher  till  Confer- 
ence." In  places  where  the  work  "appeared  to  grow  worse 
every  year"  it  was  decided  to  give  up  preaching,  "the 
preacher  only  to  meet  society  in  the  evening  or  speak  to  the 
black  people."  A  vearly  subscription  for  chapel  debts,  etc.-, 
was  to  be  taken  throughout  the  connection,  "  every  member 
that  is  not  supported  by  charity  to  give  something." 

By  frequent  and  faithful  precept  and  consistent  example 
the  preachers  must  labor  to  prevent  "superfluity  of  dress 
among  our  people." 

Members  who  buy  slaves,  to  hold  them  as  such,  should, 
after  fair  warning,  be  turned  out,  "  and  permitted  to  sell  on 
no  consideration."  The  slaveholding  local  preachers  in  Vir- 
ginia might  be  borne  with  for  one  year  more,  but  those  of 
the  other  States  must  be  suspended.  Slaveholding  preach- 
ers who  "refuse  to  manumit  their  negroes,  where  the  law 
permits,"  must  be  employed  no  more. 

The   next  point  was  new  and  practical :   To  reform   the 


256  American  Methodism 

singing,  "let  all  our  preachers  who  have  any  knowledge  in 
the  notes  improve  it  by  learning  to  sing  true  themselves,  and 
keeping  close  to  Mr.  Wesley's  tunes  and  hymns." 

An  annual  public  collection  was  "  to  be  taken  in  all  the 
principal  places  on  the  circuits  and  brought  to  Conference." 

The  number  of  preachers'  wives  was  now  thirteen,  to 
whom  £302  was  appropriated  for  support,  the  money  to  be 
collected  and  paid  quarterly.  The  general  assistant  (Asbury) 
was  to  receive  a  salary  of  £24  annually  with  his  expenses  for 
horses  and  traveling.  The  new  question,  "  What  preachers 
have  died  this  year?"  is  followed  by  the  names  of  William 
Wright  and  Henry  Metcalf,  without  a  word  of  eulogy. 

A  policy  was  adopted  toward  British  Wesleyan  applicants 
for  admission  to  the  American  Conference.  If  recommended 
by  Wesley,  and  subject  to  Asbury  and  the  American  Confer- 
ence, "we  will  receive  them;  but  if  they  walk  contrary  to 
the  above  directions,  no  ancient  right  or  appointment  shall 
prevent  their  being  excluded  from  our  connection." 

From  these  fragments  of  legislation  we  can  draw  some 
conclusion  concerning  the  spirit  of  American  Methodism  dur- 
ing this  period  of  trial  and  formative  influences.  It  was  out- 
spoken, beyond  the  moral  standard  of  its  generation,  against 
the  twin  iniquities,  slaveholding  and  dram  selling.  Its 
preachers  were  under  strict  discipline,  and  immediately  re- 
sponsible to  Asbury.  The  itinerant  principle  was  in  such 
active  operation  that  the  preachers  were  rather  traveling 
evangelists  than  settled  pastors,  the  place  of  the  latter  being 
supplied  by  local  preachers  and  class  leaders.  Services  for 
the  negroes  were  authorized  and  the  regular  instruction  of 
the  young  was  recommended. 

A  study  of  the  appointments  of  the  several  Conferences  of 
this  period  reveals  the  names  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-three 


The  Growth  of  Twenty  Years  257 

traveling  preachers,  the  number  enrolled  in  any  single  year 
ranging  from  the  original  ten  of  1773  to  eighty-lour  in  1784. 
Of  those  who  took  part  in  Rankin's  first  Conference  t  17731 
Francis  Asbury  alone  remained.  Of  his  English  colleagues, 
Rankin,  Shadford,  Wright,  and  Yearbry  had  left  the  country, 
Strawbridge  and  Williams  had  died.  Whitworth  had  back- 
slidden, and  King  had  located,  as  did  Watters,  the  only 
American. 

The  membei-ship  of  the  societies  had  increased  as  rapidly 
as  the  number  of  preachers.  In  1776  the  American  Metho- 
dists equaled  in  number  the  Lutherans,  the  German  Re- 
formed, the  Reformed  Dutch,  the  Associate  Church,  the 
Moravians,  or  the  Roman  Catholics.  During  the  war  they 
increased  with  great  rapidity,  and  at  its  close  stood  fourth  or 
fifth  in  the  list  of  Christian  denominations  in  America. 
Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia  were  still  the  main  sup- 
port of  Methodism.  These  States  contained,  in  1784.  a  great 
majority  of  its  members  and  as  large  a  proportion  of  its  sixty 
or  more  chapels.  Outside  of  the  metropolis,  Xew  York, 
Methodism  was  still  undeveloped,  and  in  Xew  England  no 
real  besrinnin?  had  vet  been  made.  Far  from  beinof  the  end 
of  the  American  societies,  the  protracted  war  actually  con- 
duced to  the  extension  of  Methodism ;  for  during  this 
agitated  period  many  persons  migrated  to  the  back  settle- 
ments. Among  those  who  went  West  were  converts,  and 
even  local  preachers,  and  at  the  restoration  of  peace  the  itin- 
erants sought  out  these  wanderers  and  formed  circuits  which 
included  the  frontier  settlements.  Thus  the  year  1783  saw- 
two  thousand  persons  added  to  the  society  and  eleven  new 
circuits  opened  :  two  in  Maryland,  three  in  western  Virginia, 
and  six  in  North  Carolina,  while  Xew  York  and  Norfolk 
were  restored  to  the  list. 


258  American  Methodism 

The  hotbed  of  Methodism  was  among  the  homogeneous 
population  of  the  peninsula  between  the  great  bays  of  Dela- 
ware and  Chesapeake,  where  the  Methodist  preachers  had 
overrun  all  Delaware  and  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland  and 
Virginia.  Already  the  first  of  the  great  Methodist  army  of 
the  "West  had  received  marching  orders,  and  the  first  notes 
of  the  swelling  chorus  of  Methodist  prayer  and  praise  had 
been  heard  on  the  head  waters  of  the  Ohio  and  in  the  valleys 
of  the  Blue  Ridee. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
Religion  in  the  Young  Republic 

Results  of  the  War. — Freedom.— The  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church.— Presbyterians  and  Other  Sects. — The  Roman  Cath- 
olics.—French  Thought.— Low  State  of  Morals. 

THE  War  of  Independence  revolutionized  religions  con- 
ditions in  America.  Its  first  effects  were  disastrous. 
In  New  England,  where  the  ministers  were  gener- 
ally patriotic  and  where  active  military  operations  were 
restricted  to  a  comparatively  small  area  along  the  seaboard, 
the  suffering  was  least;  but  in  the  lower  colonies,  where 
clerical  opinion  was  divided  and  where  hostile  armies  were 
frequently  afoot,  the  distress  was  acute.  Many  patriotic  Pres- 
bvterian  and  Reformed  ministers  saw  their  churches  ruth- 
lessly desecrated  or  destroyed,  while  the  clergy  of  the  Church 
of  England,  generally  British  in  birth  and  sympathy,  left 
their  flocks  untended  and  fled  to  the  royal  garrisons. 

It  was  a  dozen  years  after  the  war  before  the  churches 
recovered  from  the  losses,  disorganization,  and  spiritual 
apathy  which  it  engendered.  General  bankruptcy  and  an 
unsettled  currency  had  culminated  in  the  hardest  of  hard 
times;    partisan    feeling  was   never  so  acrid;     and   in    their 

anxiety  over  the  affairs  of  this  world  men  lost  their  concern 

259 


260 


American  Methodism 


for  the  interests  of  the  next.  The  worst  feature  of  all,  how- 
ever, was  that  the  frequent  and  friendly  intercourse  with 
France,  which  had  continued  since  the  dark  days  of  the  war, 
now  had  its  menacing  sequel  in  the  introduction  of  the  cur- 
rent French  infi- 
delity, and  its  pre- 
sentation to  the  ris- 
ing generation  of 
Americans  in  pe- 
culiarly seductive 
guise. 

Notwithstanding 
this  luxuriant  crop 
of  tares  there  was 
o-ood  erain  in  the 
harvest  of  the  war, 
and  to  no  religious 
body  did  more  sub- 
stantial benefits 
accrue  than  to  the 
feeble  folk  who 
under  the  name  of 
Methodists  had  come  up  through  great  tribulation.  As  the 
popular  ideas  of  freedom  and  equality  became  embodied  in 
the  constitutions  and  laws  of  the  new  .States  the  privileges  of 
the  older  religious  organizations  were  lopped  off  one  by  one, 
as  in  New  England,  or  swept  away  at  a  stroke,  as  in  Virginia. 
In  Massachusetts  a  man  must  still  be  taxed  to  support  the 
"Church  of  the  standing  order" — the  Congregational — 
unless  he  could  prove  that  he  was  an  attendant  upon  some 
other  recognized  religious  service.  But  in  most  of  the  States 
full   toleration  was  almost  immediately  granted ;    and    even 


RKV.  SAMUEL  r-ROVOOST,  D.D. 
First   Protestant  Episcopal  Bishop  of  New  York. 


Denominational  Status,  1784  261 

Jews  and  Roman  Catholics  were  not  long  denied  equal  rights 
before  the  law. 

In  1784  the  leading-  denominations  of  Christians  in  the 
United  States  were  as  follows:  the  Congregationalists,  who 
had  Xew  England  pretty  much  to  themselves  save  in  Rhode 
Island,  where  the  followers  of  Roger  Williams  were  impreg- 
nably  intrenched ;  the  Baptists,  whose  devoted  missionaries 
were  penetrating  into  every  white  settlement,  the  Friends, 
of  Pennsylvania  and  the  adjoining  States ;  the  Presbyterians 
and  various  Reformed  Churches  of  the  Middle  States  ;  and  the 
Church  of  England,  to  which  the  favor  of  royal  charters  and 
governors  had  secured  a  prestige,  especially  in  New  York 
and  the  Southern  cities,  quite  out  of  proportion  to  its  num- 
bers. The  Roman  Catholics  had  a  precarious  foothold,  with 
Maryland  as  their  chief  center.  The  Moravians  had  settle- 
ments in  Pennsylvania  and  North  Carolina,  and  the  Hugue- 
nots were  in  South  Carolina,  on  the  coast  of  Maine,  and  in 
localities  near  New  York.  The  Lutherans  were  strongest  in 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  Delaware.  Methodist  preach- 
ers were  active  from  North  Carolina  to  New  York,  but  there 
was  still  no  organized  Methodist  Church.  Preachers  and 
members  alike  were  hoping  for  the  hour  of  a  solid  and  en- 
during organization. 

Until  the  Revolution  the  English  Church  in  America  was 
attached  to  the  diocese  of  London,  and  had  no  resident 
bishop.  The  war  swept  away  its  revenues,  its  privileges, 
and  most  of  its  parish  clergy,  and  left  the  remnant  unable  to 
ordain  a  ministry  and  embarrassed  by  its  connection  with  the 
Church  of  England.  Independent  organization  was  an 
imperative  necessity. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury,  of  Connecticut,  was  consecrated 
bishop  by  the  Scottish  bishops  on  November  14,  1784,  and  in 


262 


American  Methodism 


February,  1787,  two  other  distinguished  ministers,  the  Rev. 
William  White,  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Pro- 
voost,  of  New  York,  were  ordained  in  London  to  the  episco- 
pacy. They  represented  a  convention  of  the  principal  clergy- 
men of  the  Middle  States,  and  in    1789  Seabury's  enterprise 

was  united  with  theirs 
and  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  was  fairly 
organized.  Still  so 
nearly  lifeless  were  the 
churches  of  this  order 
that  their  own  historian, 
in  reviewing  the  years 
from  1789  to  181 1,  calls 
this  "  the  period  of  sus- 
pended animation." 

The  Presbyterians 
were  greatly  depleted 
by  the  war,  which  rav- 
aged their  strongholds. 
Their  first  General  As- 
sembly was  held  in  Philadelphia  in  May,  1789,  and  the 
denomination  went  forward  upon  its  great  historic  develop- 
ment. If  it  failed  to  keep  pace  with  one  or  two  other 
Churches  in  following  the  course  of  Western  immigration, 
it  was  because  its  fidelity  to  the  traditions  of  an  educated 
ministry  restricted  the  supply  of  ministers.  No  mission- 
aries in  the  Western  country  excelled  the  young  graduates 
of  Princeton  and  Yale  in  their  zeal  for  the  Gospel,  and  espe- 
cially for  the  establishment  of  Christian  education  in  the  new 
region  beyond  the  mountains. 

The  Baptists,  long  used  to  persecution,  spread  with  amaz- 


fROM    THE    ENG»AVIr- 


SAMUEL    SEABURY. 

Ordained  by  the  Scottish  bishops  Protestant  Episcopal 
Bishop  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island. 


A  Period  of  Rapid  Growth  263 

ing  rapidity  as  soon  as  the  law  gave  them  liberty,  ana  their 
indefatigable  missionaries  gained  an  early  and  permanent 
foothold  in  the  West  and  Southwest.  In  1792  they  had  891 
churches  and  65.345  members,  including  more  than  four 
hundred  churches  in  the  South  and  more  than  sixty  beyond 
the  Alleghanies. 

In  New  England  the  Congregationalists  continued  for  a 
generation  without  much  change.  Their  growth  in  numbers 
was  slow,  but  external  forces  and  internal  movements  were 
preparing  a  great  transformation  for  the  descendants  of  the 
Puritans. 

One  half  of  the  30,000  Roman  Catholics  in  America  in 
1784  were  in  the  State  of  Maryland.  They  had  deserved 
well  of  their  country  by  their  sacrifices  during  the  war,  and 
they  eagerly  welcomed  the  tolerant  principles  which  accom- 
•panied  it.  Until  now  they  had  been  subject  to  the  vicar 
apostolic  of  London.  In  1784  they  petitioned  the  pope  for 
an  American  superintendent.  The  Rev.  John  Carroll,  of 
Baltimore,  was  appointed  "superior,"  and  in  1789  was  con- 
secrated bishop.  Two  years  later  the  first  Roman  Catholic 
synod  in  America  met  at  Baltimore.  Within  the  next  decade 
the  membership  of  the  Church  rose  to  100,000,  being  greatly 
augmented  by  immigrants  from  Ireland  and  refugees  from 
France. 

With  these  and  the  numerous  minor  ecclesiastical  organ- 
izations at  work  the  religious  welfare  of  the  young  republic 
would  appear  to  have  been  assured.  But  the  spiritual  con- 
dition of  the  Churches  was  lamentably  low.  Unbiased  wit- 
nesses agree  in  this  opinion.  The  great  awakenings  of 
Whitefield  and  Edwards  and  theTennants  were  only  a  mem- 
ory. Revivals  of  religion  were  rare  in  the  older  Churches: 
and    the   colleges,    founded   as   seminaries   of   religion,  were 


264 


American  Methodism 


infected  with  skepticism  to  an  alarming  degree.  There  were 
but  two  professing  Christians  among  the  students  of  Prince- 
ton about  1784,  and  ten  years  later  it  was  the  custom  for 
Yale  students  to  call  themselves  by  the  names  of  the  noto- 
rious infidels  of 
England  and 
France  who  were 
their  heroes. 

As  the  French 
Revolution  pro- 
gressed societies 
were  formed  in  this 
country  for  propa- 
gating its  princi- 
ples, including  its 
hostility  to  Chris- 
tianity. Bairdsays: 
"Wild  and  vague 
expectations  were 
everywhere  enter- 
tained, especially 
among  the  young, 
of  a  new  order  of 
things  about  to  commence,  in  which  Christianity  would  be 
laid  aside  as  an  obsolete  system." 

Outside  of  the  pulpit  the  educated  classes  were  generally 
friendly  to  the  radical  ideas,  and  the  pamphlets  of  Thomas 
Paine  and  his  French  contemporaries  were  read  with  equal 
eagerness  in  the  stockades  of  Kentucky  and  by  the  sons  of 
New  England  deacons. 

The  private  letters,  newspapers,  and  court  records  of  this 
period  prove  that  the  twenty  years  following  the  war  was  "  a 


REV.  JOHN  CARROLL. 

Archbishop  of  Baltimore.     The  First  Roman  Catholic  bishop 
in  the  United  Slates. 


In  the   Name  of  Liberty  265 

time  of  the  lowest  general  morality  in  American  history.'" 
The  Churches  lamented  conditions  which  they  seemed  power- 
less to  control.     In  1779  the  Presbyterian  synod  publicly  be- 


AFTER   WELCH  S  EKGRAVNG  PROM   TnE   ORAWi's.G   By   lOMiACRE. 

WILLIAM  WHITE,   D.D. 
First  1  i-hop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Pennsylvania. 

moaned  "  the  great  and  increasing  decay  of  vital  piety,  the 
degeneracy  of  manners  .  .  .  and  the  prevalence  of  vice 
and  immorality  throughout  the  land." 

In  the  name  of  "liberty" — the  god  of  the  time — the  Sab- 
bath was  desecrated,  the  Bible  blasphemed,  and  the  most 
sacred  rites  of  Christianity  derided.     The   baneful   influence 


266  American   Methodism 

of  France  further  showed  itself  in  the  weakening  of  the 
matrimonial  tie,  and  in  the  prevalence  of  dueling  as  a  means 
of  personal  redress  of  wrong. 

The  habit  of  moderate  drinking,  which  had  been  general 
before  the  war,  was  frightfully  extended  when  the  return- 
ing veterans  brought  home  the  intemperance  of  camp  life. 
Drunkenness  became  a  national  characteristic,  the  only  re- 
deeming feature  of  the  situation  being  found  in  the  fact 
that  its  horrors  called  forth  the  first  temperance  agitation. 

The  outlook  for  the  old  Thirteen  Colonies — now  aspiring 
States — appeared  gloomy  indeed,  in  spite  of  the  conservative 
influences  of  their  past  and  the  restraining  power  of  Churches 
and  ministers.  But  the  situation  was  immensely  complicated 
when  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Great  Britain  and  the  sub- 
sequent purchase  of  Louisiana  flung  open  the  gateways  of  the 
West. 

New  communities  were  formed  in  a  day.  Vast  territories 
and  great  States  were  populated  by  a  sweeping  wave  of  mi- 
gration at  a  time  when  the  older  moral  and  religious  forces 
seemed  spent,  and  inadequate  even  for  the  duty  that  lay  at 
their  doors.  A  new  force  and  a  new  system  were  needed  to 
save  the  West  for  Christianity,  and,  without  derogation  of  the 
noble  work  of  her  sister  Churches,  it  must  be  said  that  the 
new  and  exquisitely  adapted  instrument  of  Providence  was 
found  in  the  system  of  itinerant  preachers  which  John  Wes- 
ley had  instituted  in  England,  and  which  was  now  ready  to 
go  forth  to  great  conquests  under  the  direction  of  the  apos- 
tolic Asbury. 

The  time  for  the  organization  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  of  the  United  States  had  fully  come. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

"A  Bishop  as  Much  as  Any  Man  " 

Ordination  of  Whatcoat  and  Vasey.— Wesley's  Growing  Sympa- 
thy with  America. —The  Untiring  Coke.— Charles  Wesley's 
Fruitless  Protest. 

IX  August,  1784,  the  Bishop  of  London  received  a  letter 
from  "his  lordship's  dutiful  son  and  servant,  John 
Wesley,"  which  must  have  made  his  episcopal  ears  tingle 
with  indignation  and  his  fingers  itch  for  such  an  instrument 
of  discipline  as  his  predecessors  had  sometimes  used  for  the 
correction  of  impertinent  and  refractory  priests.  It  would 
appear  that  the  bishop  had  refused  to  ordain  an  applicant 
who  wished  to  preach  in  America,  saying,  with  an  islander's 
ignorance  of  continental  vastness,  "There  are  three  minis- 
ters in  that  country  already."  Whereupon  Wesley  remarks 
upon  the  territorial  extent  of  America,  and  the  character  of 
the  English  ministers  there,  who  might  know  "  something  of 
Greek  and  Latin,  but  knew  no  more  of  saving  souls  than 
of  catching  whales."  He  continues  :  "  Also  I  mourn  for  poor 
America,  for  the  sheep  scattered  up  and  down  therein.  Part 
of  them  have  no  shepherds  at  all,  particularly  in  the  northern 
colonies;   and  the  case  of  the  rest  is  little  better,  for  their 

shepherds  pity  them  not.     They  cannot,  for  they  have  no 

267 


268  American  Methodism 

pity  on  themselves ;  they  take  no  thought  or  care  for  their 
own  souls." 

That  a  way  of  relief  for  the  American  societies  was  prepar- 
ing itself  in  his  mind  appears  from  the  following  passage  in  a 
letter  which  John  Wesley  had  written  to  his  brother  Charles, 
June  8,  1780 :  "  Read  Bishop  Stillingfleet's  Irenicum,  or  any 
impartial  history  of  the  ancient  Church,  and  I  believe  you 
will  think  as  I  do.  I  verily  believe  I  have  as  good  a  right 
to  ordain  as  to  administer  the  Lord's  Supper.  But  I  see 
abundance  of  reasons  why  I  should  not  use  that  right  unless 
I  was  turned  out  of  the  Church.  At  present  we  are  just  in 
our  place." 

We  have  already  referred  to  Wesley's  intimate  acquaint- 
ance, through  correspondence  with  his  helpers  in  America, 
with  the  political  conditions  of  the  country.  Naturally  this 
carried  with  it  an  equal  familiarity  writh  the  religious  state  of 
the  colonies.  Here  Asbury  was  the  wise,  cautious,  and  accu- 
rate correspondent.  Never  did  British  cabinet  or  hierarchy 
have  a  representative  in  the  colonies  Mrho  traveled  so  widely  or 
touched  the  popular  life  so  closely  as  the  loyal  Methodist 
itinerant,  Francis  Asbury.  Wesley  knew,  and  felt  as  only  a 
good  Churchman  could  feel,  the  spiritual  destitution  of  a 
people  whose  ecclesiastical  system,  poor  enough  at  best,  had 
been  broken  down  by  war. 

Immediately  after  the  restoration  of  peace  Asbury's  mind 
reverted  to  the  cherished  thought  of  bringing  Wesley  over  to 
survey  the  ground  and  make  plans  for  its  development.  One 
of  his  letters  of  this  period  is  preserved.  He  had  already 
urged  upon  his  venerated  superior  the  vastness  of  the  field, 
the  restlessness  of  the  people  bereft  of  the  Church  sacraments, 
and  the  inadequacy  of  the  preaching  force  at  his  command. 
In  this  letter  he  says:    "  We  are  greatly  in  need  of  help.     A 


The  Climacteric  Year  269 

minister  and  such  preachers  as  you  can  fully  recommend  will 
be  very  acceptable.  Without  your  recommendation  we  shall 
receive  none.  But  nothing  is  so  pleasing  to  me,  sir,  as  the 
thought  of  seeing  you  here ;  which  is  the  ardent  desire  of 
thousands  more  in  America." 

But  the  time  for  Wesley's  long-cherished  plan  of  crossing 
the  ocean  was  past.  He  was  in  his  eighty-first  year,  and  was 
beginning  to  say,  "  I  am  on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  and  know 
not  the  hour  when  1  shall  drop  into  it."  Indeed  his  prepara- 
tions were  already  making  for  that  final  voyage  upon  which 
he  might  at  any  moment  be  summoned  to  embark.  This  -\vas 
the  year,  1784,  in  which  he  assured  the  perpetuity  of  British 
Methodism  by  securing  the  incorporation  of  the  Legal  Hun- 
dred, to  whom  descended  the  power  over  the  societies,  chapels, 
and  preachers  which  until  now  had  been  subject  to  his  indi- 
vidual authority.  While  planning  this  momentous  action  he 
was  developing  a  plan  for  establishing  the  American  Metho- 
dist societies  upon  an  independent  footing  of  equal  stability 
and  supplying  them  with  a  regular  ministry  suited  to  their 
needs.  The  year  which  witnessed  the  perfection  of  both  of 
these  undertakings,  has  well  been  called  "  the  climacteric  of 
Methodism." 

In  February,  1784,  Wesley  summoned  his  most  trusted 
English  lieutenant  to  his  study  in  City  Road  and  opened  to 
him  his  plans  for  the  reorganization  of  the  societies  in  Amer- 
ica. He  rehearsed  to  his  friend  the  repeated  appeals  of 
Asbury  and  the  American  Methodists  in  general  for  ordained 
ministers.  He  adverted  to  the  custom  of  the  ancient  Church 
at  Alexandria,  in  accordance  with  which,  on  the  death  of  a 
bishop,  the  surviving  presbyters  ordained  from  their  own 
number  by  the  laying  on  of  their  own  hands.  Finally  he 
proposed  to  lay  his  hands  in  consecration  upon  this  preacher 


270  American  Methodism 

and  to  ordain  him  to  the  superintendency  of  the  soeieties  in 
America. 

The  young  preacher  upon  whom  the  aged  apostle  leaned 
at  this  critical  juncture  was  the  Rev.  Thomas  Coke,  an  Ox- 


ATuRE    B*     ELDRiDGE. 


REV.    THOMAS   COKE,    LL.D. 
The  original  painting  is  in  the  We^leyan  Mission  Rooms,  London. 

ford  scholar  and  a  Church  of  England  minister,  who  had  lost 
his  living  some  years  earlier  for  preaching  evangelical  ser- 
mons, and  who  had  since  flung  himself  into  the  Methodist 
movement  with  an  ardor  which  has  rarely  been  equaled  even 


The  Early  Career  of  Dr.  Coke  271 

among  men  distinguished  for  the  intensity  of  their  zeal  for 
religion.     "  Doctor"  Coke — for  his  Oxford  doctorate  (Doctor 

of  Civil  Law)  was  never  lost  sight  of  by  the  early  Metho- 
dists, for  whom  academic  degrees  then  possessed  the  charm 
of  rarity — was  now  in  his  thirty-seventh  year,  having  been 
born  at  Brecon,  in  Wales,  in  1746.  His  father  was  a  trades- 
man of  some  means,  a  local  magistrate,  and  was  able  to  send 
the  only  son  to  Oxford,  where  he  was  entered  at  Jesus  Col- 
lege to  be  regularly  trained  for  the  ministry  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  in  which  his  parents  were  communicants.  Not  long 
after  taking  his  bachelor's  degree,  in  1768,  he  became  curate 
of  South  Petherton,  a  rural  parish  in  .Somersetshire.  He  was 
ordained  deacon  in  1770,  and  priest  in  1771.  His  university 
conferred  the  M.A.  degree  upon  him  in  1770,  and  honored 
him  with  its  doctorate  of  law  in  1775.  The  young  clergy- 
man was  a  wiry,  dark-haired  man,  below  the  medium  height, 
and  possessed  of  an  energy  and  determination  which  won 
Wesley's  cordial  admiration. 

Coke's  zealous  labors  in  his  obscure  parish  set  the  gossips 
to  whispering  that  the  rector  was  tainted  with  Methodist 
heresy,  and  a  neighboring  clergyman,  Thomas  Maxfield,  who 
had  been  one  of  Wesley's  earliest  lay  preachers,  sought  him 
out  and  opened  to  him  the  evangelical  doctrine.  The  min- 
ister's transition  to  Methodism  cost  him  his  pulpit.  His 
own  church  bells,  chiming  him  triumphantly  out  of  little 
South  Petherton,  really  chimed  him  into  the  cosmopolitan 
parish  of  which  John  Wesley  was  the  divinely  appointed 
rector.  The  first  meeting  of  the  two  men  took  place  at 
Kingston,  August  18,  1776,  "when,"  says  Wesley,  "  a  union 
began  which  I  trust  shall  never  end."  A  year  after  his  dis- 
missal from  his  pulpit,  in  1777,  he  was  enrolled  in  the 
Wesleyan   Conference,  where  he  at  once  took  the  chief  ap- 


272 


American   Methodism 


pointments,  and   was   assigned  to  important   services   in   all 
parts  of  the  realm. 

Sometimes  Coke's  preaching  was  of  overwhelming  power, 
and  in  executive  force  his  excellence  was  undisputed.  Wes- 
ley, keen  judge  of  character  that  he  was,  early  chose  this  fiery 


FURNISHED     Br     REV. 


PRIORY    CHURCH,    BRECON,    WALES. 
Where  Coke  and  his  parents  attended. 

young  minister  for  his  "right  hand,"  as  he  himself  after- 
ward declared.  By  his  delegated  authority  Coke  presided 
over  the  Irish  Conference  of  1782,  and  so  frequently  in  the 
years  following  that  he  has  been  called  "  its  usual  president." 
His  heart  went  out  to  all  the  nations  that  sat  in  darkness,  and 
his  mind  was  full  of  plans  for  missionary  effort  in  foreign 
lands.  As  early  as  1784  he  drew  up  "A  Plan  of  the  Society 
for  the  Establishment  of  Missions  among  the  Heathen,"  and 
collected  £66  is.  for  the  furtherance  of  its  objects ;   thus  tak- 


The   Resolution  Taken  273 

ing  the  initial  steps  leading  to  the  founding  of  the  Methodist 
Missionary  .Society,  which  was  not  formally  organized,  how- 
ever, until  some  years  later.  It  was  this  young-  man,  of  such 
liberal  education,  untiring  energy,  and  apostolic  spirit,  whom 
John  Wesley  had  determined  to  send  out  to  America  as  shep- 
herd to  the  sheep  scattered  abroad  in  the  far-off  wilderness. 

In  subsequent  years  Coke  was  as  unwearied  in  travel  and 
preaching  as  either  Wesley  or  Whitefield.  In  addition  to  his 
close  attention  to  Methodism  in  Ireland  he  was  as  much  at 
home  on  sea  as  on  land.  He  crossed  the  Atlantic  eighteen 
times,  organized  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America, 
and  planted  that  large  group  of  Wesleyan  missions  in  the  West 
Indies  which  became  the  admiration  of  the  whole  Protestant 
world.  To  personal  labors  he  added  financial  ability,  and, 
as  Stevens  justly  says,  '"gave  more  money  to  religion  than 
any  other  Methodist,  if  not  any  other  Protestant,  of  his  times." 

The  British  Wesleyan  Conference  of  1784  met  at  Leeds. 
Wesley's  mind  was  now  fully  made  up  regarding  America. 
He  believed  that  the  societies  required  ordained  preachers. 
The  Anglican  bishops  having  denied  his  requests  for  the  ordi- 
nation of  helpers  for  America,  another  way  must  be  provided. 
And,  being  long  since  persuaded  that  he  was  himself  as  much 
a  bishop  as  any  man  in  England,  he  was  not  long  in  finding  a 
way.  At  the  Leeds  Conference  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas 
Vasey,  two  faithful  lay  itinerants,  with  honorable  and  success- 
ful records,  offered  themselves  to  accompany  Coke  on  his  mis- 
sion to  the  American  Methodists.  At  the  end  of  August  they 
repaired  to  Bristol  to  take  ship  for  the  scene  of  their  labors. 
Coke  was  there,  and  also  the  Rev.  James  Creighton,  another 
friendly  Church  of  England  minister.  On  Wednesday,  Sep- 
tember 1,  Wesley,  who  was  also  present  on  an  important 
errand,  made  this  entry  in  his  Journal :  "  Being  now  clear  in 


274 


American  Methodism 


my  own  mind,  I  took  a  step  which  I  had  long  weighed,  and 
appointed  three  of  our  brethren  to  go  and  serve  the  desolate 
sheep  in  America,  which  I  verily  believe  will  be  much  to  the 
glory  of  God." 

The  innocent  word  "appointed,"  which  thus  appears  in 


FROM     A     Pr-OTCGRAPM     FuHMSHEO     &*     REV 


UEREO'TH. 


THE   PARISH    CHURCH,    SOUTH    PETHERTON,    ENGLAND. 
Where  Dr.  Coke  was  minister  when  he  joined  the  Methodists. 

Wesley's  entry  in  his  Journal,  covered  a  series  of  acts 
for  which  many  High  Churchmen  can  never  forgive  their 
perpetrator,  simple  and  natural  and  readily  defensible  as  they 
are  on  grounds  of  expediency,  Scriptural  warrant,  and  eccle- 
siastical precedent.  With  the  assistance  of  the  Rev.  James 
Creighton  and  the  Rev.  Thomas  Coke,  both  presbyters  of  the 
Church  of  England,  he  ordained  to  the  diaconate  his  two  lay 
preachers,  WThatcoat  and  Vasey.  On  the  following  day  he 
consecrated  the  same  two  to  act  as  presbyters  or  elders  in 
America,  by  baptizing  and  administering  the  Lord's  .Supper, 


Bishop  Coke's   Credentials  275 

and   he  set   apart  Coke  to  act  as   "superintendent"  of  the 

Methodist  societies   in   America,      lie   then   dispatched  them 

to  America  with  the  following-  "letters  testimonial:" 

To  all  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come,  John  Wesley,  late  Fellow  of  Lin- 
coln College  in  Oxford.  Presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England,  sendeth  greet- 
ing . 

Whereas  many  of  the  people  in  the  southern  provinces  of  North  America 
who  desire  to  continue  under  my  care,  and  still  adhere  to  the  doctrine  and  dis- 
cipline of  the  Church  of  England,  are  greatly  distressed  for  want  of  ministers  to 
administer  the  sacraments  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  according  to  the 
usage  of  the  same  Church  ;  and,  whereas,  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  other 
way  of  supplying  them  with  ministers  ; 

Know  all  men  that  1,  John  Wesley,  think  myself  to  be  providentially  called 
at  this  time  to  set  apart  some  persons  for  the  work  of  the  ministry  in  America. 
And  therefore,  under  the  protection  of  Almighty  God,  and  with  a  single  eye  to 
his  glorv,  I  have  this  day  set  apart  as  a  superintendent,  by  the  imposition  of  my 
hands,  and  prayer  (being  assisted  by  other  ordained  ministers),  Thomas  Coke. 
Doctor  of  Civil  Law,  a  presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  a  man  whom  I 
judge  to  be  well  qualified  for  that  great  work.  And  I  do  hereby  recommend 
him  to  all  whom  it  may  concern  as  a  fit  person  to  preside  over  the  flock  of 
Christ. 

In  testimony  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  this  2d  day  of 
September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1784.  Jdhx  Wesli  v. 

Similar  certificates  were  given  to  Whateoat  and  Vasey. 
The  following  address  to  the  American  preachers  was  drawn 

up : 

r  Bristol,  September  10,  1784. 

To  Dr.  Coke,  Mr.  Asbury,  and  our  Brethren  in  North  America  : 

By  a  very  uncommon  train  of  providences,  many  of  the  provinces  of  North 
America  are  totally  disjoined  from  the  mother  country  and  erected  into  inde- 
pendent States.  The  English  government  has  no  more  authority  over  them, 
either  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  any  more  than  over  the  states  of  Holland.  A  civil 
authority  is  exercised  over  them,  partly  by  the  congress,  partly  by  the  State 
assemblies,  but  no  one  either  exercises  or  claims  any  ecclesiastical  authoritv  at 
all.  In  this  peculiar  situation  some  thousands  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  States 
desire  my  advice,  and  in  compliance  with  their  desire  I  have  drawn  up  a  little 
sketch. 

Lord  King's  account  of  the  primitive  Church  convinced  me,  many  vears 
ago,  that  bishops  and  presbyters  are  the  same  order,  and  consequently  have  the 
same  right  to  ordain.  For  many  years  I  have  been  importuned  from  time  to 
time  to  exercise  this  right  by  ordaining  part  of  our  traveling  preachers.  But  I 
have  still  refused  ;  not  only  for  peace'  sake,  but  because  I  was  determined   as 


276 


American  Methodism 


little  as  possible  to  violate  the  established  order  of  the  national  Church  to  which 
1  belonged. 

But  the  case  is  widely  different  between  England  and  North  America. 
Here  there  are  bishops  who  have  a  legal  jurisdiction  ;  in  America  there  are 
none,  and  but  few  parish  ministers  ;  so  that  for  some  hundreds  of  miles  to- 
gether there  is  none  either  to  baptize  or  to  administer  the  Lord's  Supper. 
Here,  therefore,  my  scruples  are  at  an  end;  and  I  conceive  myself  at  full 
liberty,  as  I  violate  no  order  and  invade  no  man's  right,  by  appointing  and 
sending  laborers  into  the  harvest. 

I  have  accordingly  appointed  Dr.  Coke  and  Mr.  Francis  Asbury  to  be  joint 
superintendents  over  our  brethren  in  North  America  ;    as  also   Richard  What- 


NAVE   OF    BRECON    CHURCH. 
The  font  at  which  Thomas  Coke  was  baptized. 


coat  and  Thomas  Vasey,  to  act  as  elders  among  them,  by  baptizing  and  admin- 
istering the  Lord's  Supper.  And  1  have  prepared  a  liturgy,  little  differing  from 
that  of  the  Church  of  England  (I  think  the  best  constituted  national  Church  in 
the  world),  which  I  advise  all  the  traveling  preachers  to  use  on  the  Lord's  day, 
in  all  the  congregations,  reading  the  litany  only  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays, 
and  praying  extempore  on  all  other  days.  I  also  advise  the  elders  to  administer 
the  Supper  of  the  Lord  on  every  Lord's  clay. 

If  anyone  will  point  out  a  more  rational  and  scriptural  way  of  feeding  and 
guiding  these  poor  sheep  in  the  wilderness,  I  will  gladly  embrace  it.  At  pres- 
ent I  cannot  see  any  better  method  than  that  I  have  taken. 


A  Churchman's  Lament  277 

It  has,  indeed,  been  proposed    to    desire  the   English  bishops  to  ordain  a 

part  of  our  preachers  for  America.      But  to  this  I   object:    (i)    I   desired  the 

Bishop  of  London  to  ordain  one  only,  but  could  not  prevail.    (2)  If  they  consented, 

we  know  the  slowness  of  their  proceedings;  but  the  matter  admits  of  no  delay. 

(3)  If  they  would  ordain  them  now,  they  would  likewise  expect  to  govern  them ; 

and  how  grievously  would  this  entangle  us!    (4)  As  our  American  brethren  are 

now  totally  disentangled,  both  from  the  State  and  from  the  English  hierarchy, 

we  dare  not  entangle  them  again,  either  with  the  one  or  the  other.     They  are 

now  at  full  liberty  both  to  follow  the  Scriptures  and  the  primitive  Church.    And 

we  judge  it  best  that  they  should  stand  fast  in  that  liberty  wherewith  God  has 

so  strangely  made  them  free. 

John  Wesley. 

"  These  are  the  steps,"  says  Wesley,  in  another  place, 
"which,  not  of  choice  but  necessity,  I  have  slowly  and 
deliberately  taken.  If  anyone  is  pleased  to  call  this  sepa- 
rating from  the  Church,  he  mav!  " 

The  Bristol  ordinations,  however  necessary  and  right,  were 
a  shock  to  many  in  England.  One  of  the  preachers  wrote : 
"  Ordination  among  Methodists  !  Amazing  indeed!  Surely 
it  never  began  in  the  midst  of  a  multitude  of  counselors; 
and  I  greatly  fear  the  Son  of  man  was  not  secretary  of 
state,  or  not  present,  when  the  business  was  brought  on  and 
carried.  .  .  .  Years  to  come  will  speak  in  groans  the 
opprobrious  anniversary  of  our  religious  madness  for  gowns 
and  bands." 

In  the  following  spring  Charles  Wesley,  jealous  Church- 
man that  he  was,  and  who  had  never  lost  his  dread  of  separa- 
tion from  the  Church  of  England,  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Chandler,  an  Anglican  clergyman  then  embarking  for 
America,  in  which  he  laments  his  brother's  act  in  the  most 
emphatic  terms.  He  has  "  robbed  his  friends  of  their  boast- 
ing and  left  an  indelible  blot  on  his  name  as  long  as  it  shall 
be  remembered."  Of  himself  he  exclaims,  "  I  have  lived  on 
earth  a  little  too  long,  who  have  lived  to  see  this  evil  day !  " 
Finally,   he   utters  this  lugubrious  prophecy:      "What   will 


278 


American  Methodism 


become  of  these  poor  sheep  in  the  wilderness,   the  American 
Methodists  ?      How   have    they  been   betrayed   into    a    sep- 

_ _     aration  from  the 


ENQUIRY 

INTO    THE 

Conftitution ,  Difcipline, 
Unity  &  Worfliip, 

OF    THE 

Primitive  Church, 

x 

That  Fiourifh'd  within  the  firft 
Three  Hundred  Years  after 
CHRIST. 

Faithfully  Coile&ed  but  of  the  Ex- 
tant  Writings  of  thofe  Ages. 

■    ■ r ■■'  ' 

'By  an  Impartial  Hand. 


Printed  in  the  Year  t-jtz. 


■   «i  ■ 


•  ~  -^ 


FROM    A    «>mOTOGRAPm    OF    THE    OR"Cii\ 


MSMED    Br    REV.     C.    S.    NUTTER. 


TITLE   OF    KING'S    PRIMITIVE   CHURCH. 

The  book  which  tonlirmeil  Wesley  in   his  idea  of  the  character  of 
the  episcopacy. 


would  be  genuine,  valid,  episcopal.      But 


Church  of  Eng- 
land, which  their 
preachers  and  they 
no  more  intended 
than  the  Metho- 
dists here !  Had 
they  had  patience 
a  little  longer,  they 
would  have  seen 
a  real  bishop  in 
America. 
There  is 

not  the  least  differ- 
ence betwixt  the 
members  of  Bishop 
Seabury's  Church 
and  the  Church  of 
England.  He  told 
me  he  looked  upon 
the  Methodists  in 
America  as  sound 
members  of  the 
Church,  and  was 
ready  to  ordain  any 
of  their  preachers 
whom  he  should 
find  duly  qualified. 
His  ordination 
what  arc  your  poor 


So  Much  for  Prophecy  279 

Methodists  now?  Only  a  new  sect  of  Presbyterians.  And 
after  my  brother's  death,  which  is  now  so  near,  what  will  be 
their  end?  They  will  lose  all  their  influence  and  importance  ; 
they  will  turn  aside  to  vain  janglings;  they  will  settle  again 
upon  their  lees;  and,  like  other  sects  of  Dissenters,  come  to 
nothing." 

So  much  for  prophecy! 

The  Bristol  ordinations  for  America  do  not  stand  alone. 
In  each  year  of  the  succeeding  five  Wesley  ordained  one  or 
more  deacons  and  elders,  and  in  one  case  a  "superintend- 
ent," mostly  for  work  in  Scotland  and  foreign  lands;  though 
several,  notably  Rev.  Henry  Moore  and  Rev.  Thomas  Ran- 
kin, sometime  of  America,  were  assigned  to  duty  in  England. 

In  August,  1785,  when  Wesley  ordained  three  preachers, 
his  brother  Charles  wrote  to  him  in  much  the  same  strain  as 
his  September  deliverance  to  Dr.  Chandler.  His  fear  is  that 
Coke  will  ordain  the  English  preachers.  "When  once  you 
began  ordaining  in  America,"  he  says,  "I  knew,  and  you 
knew,  that  your  preachers  here  would  never  rest  till  you 
ordained  them.  .  .  .  His  [Dr.  Coke's]  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  in  Baltimore  was  intended  to  beget  a  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  here.  You  know  he  comes,  armed  with 
your  authority,  to  make  us  all  Dissenters.  One  of  your  sons 
(in  the  Gospel)  assured  me  that  not  a  preacher  in  London 
would  refuse  orders  from  the  doctor."  The  letter  closed 
with  an  appeal  to  his  brother,  in  the  name  of  all  that  was 
venerable  and  dear,  to  check  the  course  which  must  lead  to 
separation  from  the  Church. 

John  Wesley's  reply  is  celebrated.     He  defended  his  claim 
to  be  "a  spiritual  emoKonog  as  much  as  any  man   in   England 
or  in  Europe;    for  the  uninterrupted  succession  I  know  to  be 
a  fable,  which   no  man  did   or  can  prove."      He   denied   any 


280  American  Methodism 

intention  to  separate  from  the  Established  Church.  "  I  walk 
still  by  the  same  rule  I  have  done  for  between  forty  and  fifty 
years.  I  do  nothing  rashly.  It  is  not  likely  I  should.  The 
high  day  of  my  blood  is  over.  If  you  will  go  on  hand  in 
hand  with  me,  do.  But  do  not  hinder  me,  if  you  will  not 
help.  Perhaps,  if  you  had  kept  close  to  me,  I  might  have 
done  better.  However,  with  or  without  help,  I  creep  on  ; 
and  as  I  have  been  hitherto,  so  I  trust  I  shall  always  be, 
"  Your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

Charles  made  prompt  and  frank  reply,  charging  upon  his 
brother  responsibility  for  Coke's  alleged  "resolution  to  get 
all  the  Methodists  of  the  three  kingdoms  into  a  distinct,  com- 
pact body." 

John  Wesley  answered  in  a  few  sentences,  chiefly  in 
defense  of  Dr.  Coke,  his  "right  hand."  Charles  returned 
to  the  charge  in  two  later  letters,  but  did  not  succeed  in 
securing  satisfaction. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

Off  Like  an  Arrow 

Envoys  Extraordinary.— Richard  Whatco at.— Thomas  Vasey.— 
John"  Dickins.— The  Meetings  in  New  York.— Asbury  and  Coke 
at  Barrati's  Chapel. 


AT  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  September  iS,  1784, 
the  three  Wesleyan  envoys,  Coke,  Whatcoat,  and 
Vasey,  set  sail  from  Bristol  in  the  ship  Four  Friends, 
Parrot,  master,  for  New  York.  After  the  first  four  days  of 
misery  the  passengers  "  were  preserved,"  writes  one  of  them, 
"in  great  temperance  of  body  and  peace  of  mind."  The 
captain  and  crew  treated  the  clerical  passengers  with  great 
civility.  The  zealous  preachers  had  public  prayers  morning 
and  evening,  and  preached  twice  on  the  Sabbath.  The  even- 
ings were  spent  in  reading  Christian  biography  and  theo- 
logical works.  The  ship  was  sorely  buffeted  by  storm,  and 
driven  a  thousand  miles  out  of  her  course.  It  was  not  until 
November  that  the  Four  Friends  sighted  Sandy  Hook,  and 
on  the  3d  of  the  month  the  three  companions  landed  in  New 
York. 

Coke  was  the  youngest  of  the  trio,  and  their  official  supe- 
rior and  natural  leader.     He  stepped  ashore  as  the  designated 

superintendent  of  the  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

281 


282  American  Methodism 

which  he  had  Wesley's  instructions  to  organize.  He  was 
just  entering  his  thirty-eighth  year.  Whatcoat,  destined  to 
be  one  of  his  successors  in  the  general  superintendency,  was 
fully  ten  years  his  senior,  while  Vasey,  the  third  American 
Methodist  minister,  was  a  little  older  than  Coke. 

At  the  age  of  thirteen  young  "  Dick  Whatcoat,"  a  Glouces- 
tershire lad  of  humble  origin,  was  apprenticed  to  learn  a 
trade.  His  father's  death  had  left  the  care  of  a  houseful  of 
children  to  a  pious  mother,  and  her  instructions  and  example 
were  not  lost  upon  this  son.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he 
came  under  the  influence  of  the  Methodist  preachers  and 
after  some  months  of  debate  and  struQ-ode  became  an  earnest 
believer.  The  work  of  grace  deepened  with  the  years,  until, 
as  he  says,  his  soul  "  was  drawn  out  and  engaged  in  a  man- 
ner it  never  was  before.  Suddenly  I  was  stripped  of  all  but 
love." 

Following  the  usual  Methodist  progression  toward  the 
itinerancy,  he  became  band  leader,  class  leader,  and  steward 
of  the  society  at  Wednesbury,  and  naturally  passed  to  ex- 
horting and  preaching  among  the  villagers  and  rustics.  The 
Lord  so  evidently  honored  the  work  that  young  Whatcoat 
ventured  to  offer  himself  to  Wesley  for  the  regular  ministry. 
To  his  joy  he  was  accepted,  and  for  fifteen  years,  from  1769, 
he  labored  with  zeal  and  success  upon  circuits  in  England, 
Ireland,  and  Wales. 

When  the  urgent  call  for  missionaries  came  to  the  Confer- 
ence at  Leeds,  in  August,  1784,  it  was  George  Shadford,  the 
faithful  evangelist  of  the  Virginia  revival,  who,  recognizing 
the  fitness  of  his  friend  Whatcoat  for  such  service,  sought  him 
out  and  urged  him  to  take  up  his  cross  and  go.  Seafaring 
had  only  terrors  for  this  middle-aged  landsman,  and  the  work 
before   him  promised  to  be  arduous  in   the  extreme,  compli- 


Rev.  Richard  Whatcoat  283 

cated  as  it  was  with  political  relations  and  international  hatred 
and  prejudice.  Even  the  event  of  success  implied  lifelong 
exile  for  the  missionary.  Whatcoat  could  not  decide  for 
himself,  but  after  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayerful  meditation 
the  answer  came  to  him  and  he  volunteered  to  go  with 
Coke. 

From  his  portrait  (which  is  reproduced  later)  and  the  de- 
scriptions of  his  friends  we  form  a  picture  of  this  grave  com- 
rade of  the  impetuous  Coke.  He  was  somewhat  above 
medium  stature,  neither  thin  nor  corpulent,  with  a  rounded 
face,  dark  and  brilliantly  lighted  eyes,  and  dark  hair,  which 
hung  in  graceful  waves  behind,  and  was  cropped  square 
above  his  open  brow.  Gravity,  courtesy,  and  dignity  marked 
his  manner  toward  all,  and  the  spiritual  fires  which  warmed 
and  lighted  his  character  were  apparent  in  his  bearing  and 
conversation.  "So  much  divine  majesty  and  luster  appeared 
in  him,"  says  Phcebus,  "it  made  the  wicked  tremble  to  be- 
hold him.  .  .  .  His  whole  deportment  was  beautiful  and 
adorned  with  personal  graces.  His  amiable,  heavenly,  and 
courteous  carriage  was  such  as  to  make  him  the  delight  of 
his  acquaintances.  He  was  a  man  of  fortitude;  he  appeared 
to  fear  no  danger  when  duty  was  plain,  believing  that  he  who 
walks  uprightly  walks  safely."  Bangs  declares  that  his  dis- 
tinguished characteristic  was  ' '  a  meekness  and  modesty  of 
spirit  which,  united  with  simplicity  of  intention  and  gravity 
of  deportment,  commended  him  as  a  pattern  worthy  of  imita- 
tion." Learned  he  was  not,  save  in  one  Book  and  in  the 
things  of  the  Spirit,  but  he  was  utterly  unworldly,  and  had 
that  purity  of  heart  which  opens  heaven  to  the  spiritual  eye. 
An  aged  Christian  who  had  heard  him  in  youth  remembered 
In  his  dying  day  with  what  power  he  could  stir  an  audience 
when  preaching  on  personal    holiness.     Stevens  says,  with 


284 


American   Methodism 


his  usual  discrimination,  "  Richard  Whatcoat  was  one  of  the 
saintliest  men  in  the  early  itinerancy  of  Methodism." 

The  subsequent  vacillations  of  Thomas  Vasey  have  made 


REV.   THOMAS    VASEY. 
The  ordained  companion  of  Coke  and  Whatcoat. 


him  a  less  heroic  figure  than  his  colleagues  among  the  Metho- 
dist pioneers.  But  his  character  was  not  without  excellences. 
He  had  been  early  left  an  orphan,  but  was  the  ward  and 
destined  heir  of  a  wealthy  and  childless  uncle.  In  the  face 
of  his  guardian's  displeasure  he  had  joined  the  Methodists, 


Rev.  Thomas  Vasey  285 

and  had  turned  his  back  on  the  world  and  the  delights  of 
wealth  by  becoming  a  Wesleyan  preacher.  He  was  an  itiner- 
ant of  nine  years'  service  when  the  Macedonian  call  came  to 
the  preachers  at  Leeds  and  touched  his  sense  of  duty.  He 
vounteered,  was  accepted,  and  with  Whatcoat  received  ordi- 
nation at  Wesley's  hands,  at  Bristol,  in  the  first  days  of  Sep- 
tember. He  sailed  with  the  others  two  weeks  later  for  the 
western  world.  After  two  years  of  faithful  service  in  the 
itinerancy  there  he  seems  to  have  wavered  in  his  faith  in 
the  validity  of  his  orders.  Bishop  White,  of  Philadelphia,  of 
the  newly  organized  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  reordained 
him,  and  on  returning  to  England  Vasey  accepted  a  curacy 
in  the  Church  of  England.  His  heart,  however,  yearned  for 
his  old  associations,  and  in  1789  we  find  him  welcomed  back 
into  the  Wesleyan  fold,  where  his  churchly  orders  were  fully 
utilized  in  the  societies  in  the  ministration  of  the  sacraments. 
He  grew  old  in  the  service,  and  died  a  loyal  Methodist,  and 
an  octogenarian  pensioner  of  the  Conference,  in  1826. 

There  was  no  august  committee  of  reception  waiting  on 
the  pier  when  the  consecrated  bishop  of  the  nascent  Church 
and  his  two  colleagues  said  "  good-by."  to  Captain  Parrot 
and  walked  down  the  gangplank  of  the  Four  Friends  and 
stood  for  the  first  time  on  American  soil.  They  inquired  of 
a  bystander  the  way  to  the  Methodist  preachinghouse — 
for  the  fame  of  the  little  Wesley  chapel  in  John  Street  had 
long  before  crossed  the  Atlantic.  They  were  directed,  in- 
stead, to  the  house  of  Stephen  Sands,  watchmaker,  local 
preacher,  trustee,  and  joint  treasurer  of  the  Methodist  society, 
where  the  storm-tossed  travelers  at  once  "  found  themselves 
in  a  region  of  hospitality  and  friendliness." 

The  preacher  in  charge  at  New  York  in  1784  was  John 
Dickins,  the  sagacious  man  whom  Asbury  had  stationed  there 


286  American  Methodism 

to  repair  the  waste  of  war  in  the  society.  The  news  of  the 
arrival  of  such  visitors,  upon  what  errand  he  would  be  the 
first  to  guess,  brought  him  in  haste  to  the  watchmaker's 
house.  To  him  first,  therefore,  Coke  unfolded  Wesley's 
plans  for  the  organization  of  the  Methodist  societies  in  Amer- 
ica as  a  Church  under  a  system  of  efficient  superintendents, 
and  the  immediate  ordination  of  the  American  lay  itinerants. 
Dickins,  who  had  been  one  of  the  movers  of  the  project  of 
the  Southern  preachers  at  the  Fluvanna  Conference  of  1779, 
to  supply  the  lack  of  ordained  ministers  by  ordaining  some 
of  their  own  number,  listened  eagerly  to  the  recital  and  gave 
it  his  hearty  approval.  So  confident  was  he  that  it  would 
satisfy  Asbury  and  the  itinerants  generally  that  he  urged 
Coke  to  publish  the  plan  at  once  through  the  societies.  The 
doctor,  however,  deemed  it  prudent  to  withhold  the  details 
of  the  arrangement  until  he  should  have  consulted  with  As- 
bury, the  recognized  head  of  the  Wesleyan  Connection  in 
America. 

On  the  third  day  after  his  arrival  in  New  York  Coke  de- 
parted for  Philadelphia,  not,  however,  without  preaching 
twice  or  thrice  to  the  little  flock  in  the  John  Street  Chapel. 
Philip  Embury  had  long  lain  in  his  up-country  grave,  and 
good  Barbara  Heck  was  far  away  in  Canada,  but  there  were 
doubtless  those  among  Coke's  hearers  whose  minds  went  back 
from  the  polished  preaching  of  the  Oxford  scholar  to  the 
night  when  dame  Barbara  rebuked  the  godless  crew  and  ex- 
torted from  the  reluctant  carpenter  the  sermon  from  which 
so  many  date  the  beginnings  of  American  Methodism. 

The  Philadelphia  Methodists  gladly  received  the  English 
strangers  who  came  in  Wesley's  name,  and  Coke's  education 
and  ministerial  standing  won  for  him  especial  attention  from 
the  Anglican  ministers.   His  first  .Sunday  discourse  in  America 


In  Philadelphia  and  Dover  287 

was  delivered  from  the  pulpit  of  St.  Paul's,  where  Asbury's 
friend,  McGaw,  was  now  rector.  In  the  evening-  he  ad- 
dressed the  Methodists  in  their  own  house — St.  George's. 
Dr.  White,  one  of  the  most  eminent  Episeopal  clergymen  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  soon  to  be  its  first  bishop,  and  Dr.  McGaw 
paid  him  marked  attention,  and  he  was  presented  to  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  State. 

On  Thursday,  the  eighth  day  since  their  landing,  the  three 
ministers  again  set  off  southward,  in  a  borrowed  wagon, 
traveling  toward  the  heart  of  Methodism  in  quest  of  its  head, 
Francis  Asbury,  who  was  reported  to  be  on  the  tour  of  the 
Delaware  circuits. 

At  Dover  they  were  received  by  that  honored  Methodist, 
Richard  Bassett,  the  liberal  patron  of  the  preachers  in  that 
section,  and  at  his  table  they  first  fell  in  with  that  notable 
young  evangelist,  Freeborn  Garrettson,  who  at  once  im- 
pressed Coke  as  "an  excellent  young  man,  all  meekness, 
love,  and  activity."  His  prophetic  eye  may  well  have  seen 
in  the  sturdy  young  American  a  worthy  pillar  of  the  noble 
ecclesiastical  edifice  whose  foundations  he  was  about  to  lay. 

Some  miles  from  Dover,  amid  rural  surroundings,  stood 
Barratt's  Chapel,  a  brick  building  of  two  stories,  which,  since 
its  erection  four  or  five  years  previously,  had  been  considered 
the  finest  country  chapel  in  American  Methodism.  This 
historic  building  was  the  scene  of  a  quarterly  meeting  of  the 
neighboring  circuits  on  Sunday,  November  14.  As  was 
usual  on  such  occasions,  a  number  of  preachers  and  a  great 
throng  of  men,  women,  and  children  attended  from  miles 
around. 

Coke  rode  out  to  this  chapel  in  the  woods  to  preach  the 
morning  sermon.  He  tells  us  that  he  had  "a  noble  congre- 
gation," and  discoursed  on  "the  Redeemer  as  our  wisdom, 


288 


American  Methodism 


righteousness,  sanctifieation,  and  redumption."  One  who 
was  present  on  that  auspicious  occasion  afterward  wrote: 
"While  Coke  was  preaching  Asbury  came  into  the  congre- 
gation. A  solemn  pause  and  deep  silence  took  place  at  the 
close  of  the  sermon,  as  an  interval  for  introduction  and  salu- 
tation. Asbury  and  Coke,  with  hearts  full  of  brotherly  love, 
approached,  embraced,  and  saluted  each   other.     The  other 


I'.ARRATT'S  chapel  (interior.) 

Showing  old  altar  rail,  and  the  pulpit  where  Coke  and  Asbury  met  for  the 
first  time  in  America. 

preachers  at  the  same  time  were  melted  into  sympathy  and 
tears.  The  congregation  also  caught  the  glowing  emotion, 
and  the  whole  assembly  burst  into  tears.  I  can  never  forget 
the  affecting  scene.  The  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
was  administered  by  the  doctor  [Coke]  and  Whatcoat  to 
several  hundreds,  and  it  was  a  blessed  season  to  many  souls." 
Coke's  own  account  of  the  memorable  meeting  is  picturesque 
and  to  the  point :  "After  the  sermon  a  plain,  robust  man  came 
up  to  me  in  the  pulpit  and  kissed  me.      I  thought  it  could  be 


An   Historic   Meeting  289 

no  other  than  Mr.  Asbury,  and  1  was  not  deceived."  Oi  the 
sacramental  service  that  followed  he  declares  "it  was  the 
best  season  I  ever  knew,  except  one." 

Asbury's  Journal  entry  on  the  events  of  this  Sabbath  was 
characteristically  matter-of-fact:  "  I  came  to  Barratt's Chapel. 
Here,  to  my  great  joy,  I  met  those  dear  men  of  God,  Dr. 
Coke  and  Richard  Whatcoat.  We  were  greatly  comforted 
together.  .  .  .  Having  had  no  opportunity  of  conversing  with 
them  before  public  worship,  I  was  greatly  surprised  to  see 
Brother  Whatcoat  assist  by  taking  the  cup  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  sacrament."  He  had  known  and  loved  What- 
coat, in  the  years  of  his  English  labors,  as  a  fellow  lay 
preacher,  and  he  was  still  ignorant  of  the  Bristol  ordinations 
and  the  plans  which  these  Wesleyan  envoys  were  charged 
with  executing. 

That  afternoon  the  two  earnest  men  talked  long  together : 
the  Oxford  clergyman  who  carried  in  his  pocket  Air.  Wes- 
ley's credentials  as  the  first  Protestant  bishop  in  the  New 
World,  and  the  plain-spoken  preacher  in  homespun,  the  ac- 
knowledged leader  of  the  societies  in  America.  In  the  course 
of  this  conversation  the  ardent  Coke  unfolded  to  the  prudent 
Asbury  the  full  details  of  the  new  plan  of  a  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  furnished  with  an  ordained  ministry  of  bishops, 
elders,  and  deacons.  To  Asbury,  who  was  to  be  the  episco- 
pal colleague  of  Coke,  the  news  gave  great  surprise.  "I 
was  shocked,"  he  writes,  "when  first  informed  of  the  inten- 
tion of  these  my  brethren  in  coming  to  this  country.  It  may 
be  of  God.  My  answer  then  was,  '  If  the  preachers  unani- 
mously choose  me,  I  shall  not  act  in  the  capacity  I  have 
hitherto  done  by  Mr.  Wesley's  appointment.'  The  design  of 
organizing  the  Methodists  into  an  independent  Episcopal 
Church    was   opened   to   the   preachers   present,    and   it   was 


290  American  Methodism 

agreed  to  call  a  General  Conference,  to  meet  at  Baltimore 
the  ensuing- Christmas;  as  also  that  Brother  Garrettson  go 
off  to  Virginia  to  give  notice  thereof  to  the  brethren  in  the 
South."  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  so  large  had  been 
the  expansion  of  Methodism  in  the  South  that  in  1784  seven 
eighths  of  the  preachers  lived  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 
Line. 

When  Coke  exhibited  his  credentials  authorizing  the  con- 
secration of  Asbury  as  joint  superintendent  of  the  new- 
Church,  the  latter  exclaimed,  "Doctor,  we  will  call  the 
preachers  together,  and  the  voice  of  the  preachers  shall  be  to 
me  the  voice  of  God."  Coke  also  notes  that  Asbury  would 
take  no  step  without  consulting  the  American  brethren,  and 
concludes,  "We  therefore  sent  off  Freeborn  Garrettson  like 
an  arrow,  from,  north  to  south,  directing  him  to  send  mes- 
sengers to  the  right  and  left  and  to  gather  all  the  preachers 
together  at  Baltimore  on  Christmas  Eve." 

Whatever  might  be  the  decision  of  the  General  Conference 
in  regard  to  these  revolutionary  proposals,  Asbury  proceeded 
to  utilize  the  English  clergymen  to  the  utmost.  Coke  was 
not  to  be  allowed  to  rust  in  idleness,  during  the  six  weeks 
which  must  elapse  before  Christmas,  while  the  societies  were 
crying  out  for  the  services  of  an  ordained  minister. 

Asbury  fitted  out  the  Oxford  doctor  with  a  good  horse, 
loaned  him  his  own  colored  body  servant,  Harry  Hosier, 
himself  an  eloquent  exhorter,  and  on  the  verge  of  winter 
sent  him  out  on  a  circuit  of  eight  hundred  or  a  thousand 
miles  among  the  preaching  stations  of  Delaware  and  the 
Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland.  He  was  received  with  delight 
throughout  the  peninsula,  making  the  acquaintance  of  preach- 
ers and  laymen,  baptizing  hundreds  of  infants  and  adults, 
and  preaching  twice  a  day,  often  in   the  forest  amid  novel 


Harry  Hosier's  Gifts  291 

surroundings.  "Perhaps,"  he  notes  in  his  diary,  "  I  have 
in  this  tour  baptized  more  than  T  should  in  my  whole 
life  it"  stationed  in  an  English  parish."  In  one  chapel — 
Tuckahoe — the  singing  gave  him  especial  pleasure;  at  An- 
namessex  the  number  of  saddle  horses  standing  about  tied  to 
trees,  while  he  preached,  impressed  him  deeply.  The  gen- 
try of  Delaware  and  the  Eastern  Shore  entertained  him  in 
their  fine  homes.  Coke's  guide  and  faithful  companion  in 
these  wintry  rides  was  himself  a  character  of  note.  Harry 
Hosier  was  a  short  and  intensely  black  negro,  whose  eyes 
were  of  unusual  brilliancy.  Though  he  could  neither  read  nor 
write,  he  had  a  rare  gift  of  eloquence,  and  his  sermons  were  ap- 
preciated by  audiences  without  distinction  of  color.  Asbury 
used  to  say  that  experience  had  taught  him  that  the  best  way 
for  him  to  draw  a  crowd  was  to  advertise  that  "  Black  Harry" 
would  preach.  Frequently  it  was  arranged  that  Harry  should 
speak  at  the  evening  service,  which  was  likely  to  be  thronged 
with  slaves,  and  his  ability  to  sway  the  emotions  of  such  an 
assembly  was  undisputed.  Before  they  had  traveled  together 
a  fortnight  Coke  declared  that,  in  spite  of  his  ignorance  of 
book  learning,  Harry  Hosier  was  "one  of  the  best  preachers 
in  the  world." 

"While  Coke  was  studying  the  conditions  of  the  work  in 
America  some  of  the  American  preachers  were  taking  a  close 
look  at  him.  The  war  was  too  fresh  in  their  minds  to  allow 
them  to  be  prejudiced  in  favor  of  a  Briton,  Oxford  scholar 
and  "Wesley*s  right  hand  though  he  might  be.  Perhaps  that 
true  patriot,  Thomas  Ware,  expressed  the  first  thought  of 
many  a  hardy  pioneer  preacher  when  he  wrote  of  the  dapper 
little  clergyman,  "  His  stature,  complexion,  and  voice  re- 
sembled those  of  a  woman  rather  than  those  of  a  man  ;  and 
his  manners  were  too  courtly  for  me."      But  longer  and  closer 


292  American   Methodism 

association  convinced  his  brethren  of  his  sagacity  and  force, 
while  his  praise  of  the  character  and  institutions  of  the 
infant  republic,  and  his  frankly  expressed  admiration  and 
veneration  of  Asbury,  eventually  conciliated  the  favor  of 
nearly  all. 

Meanwhile  Asbury  was  pursuing  his  round  of  visitation 
among  the  societies  west  of  the  Chesapeake,  introducing 
Whatcoat  and  Vasey  to  the  work.  From  his  Journal  it  ap- 
pears that  the  momentous  business  of  the  approaching 
General  Conference  concerned  his  thoughts  frequently  and 
profoundly.  He  finds  the  preachers  generally  inclined  to 
approve  the  plan  for  an  independent  Church.  For  himself, 
the  honor  of  being  officially  named  superintendent  "  did  not 
tickle  "  his  fancy,  as  he  says.  Experience  had  acquainted 
him  with  the  metal  of  which  the  American  preacher  was 
made,  and  with  his  ingrained  idea's  of  discipline  and  his 
hopes  for  the  future  of  the  work  he  could  not  expect  the 
episcopacy  to  yield  honor,  or  anything  else  except  unceasing 
and  thankless  toil.  Consequently  we  find  him,  on  the  eve  of 
the  critical  step,  giving  up  days  and  nights  to  fasting  and 
prayer.  He  seeks  the  counsel  of  the  older  preachers.  It  is 
interesting  to  read  that  he  had  "an  interesting  conversation  " 
with  a  clergyman — Church  of  England,  doubtless — "on  the 
subject  of  the  episcopal  mode  of  Church  government." 

Freeborn  Garrettson,  the  herald  who  was  sent  "  off  like  an 
arrow"  with  a  commission  "to  go  through  the  continent  to 
summon  the  preachers"  to  General  Conference,  did  his  work 
well.  "A  tedious  journey  I  had,"  he  says,  but  "  my  dear 
Master  enabled  me  to  ride  about  twelve  hundred  miles  in  six 
weeks,  and  to  preach,  going  and  coming,  constantly." 

By  the  middle  of  December  many  of  the  Methodist 
preachers  were  on  their  way  to  Baltimore — a  long  journey 


The  Week  before  Christmas  293 

from  the  extreme  portions  of  the  work,  which  had  now  spread 
from  the  Hudson  River  to  the  Carolinas. 

For  a  week  previous  to  Christmas  Day  Asbury  and  the 
three  Englishmen  were  entertained  at  Henry  Cough's  hos- 
pitable mansion — Perry  Hall,  fifteen  miles  from  Baltimore. 
In  this  colonial  seat,  "the  most  spacious  and  elegant  "  dwell- 
ing which  Coke  had  seen  since  the  landscape  of  Britain  sank 
below  the  horizon,  the  details  of  the  plan  of  Church  organiza- 
tion were  prepared  for  submission  to  the  preachers,  and  the 
"  larger  Minutes  "  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference  were 
revised  and  edited  into  a  draft  of  a  Methodist  Episcopal  Book 
of  Discipline. 


CHAPTER   XXX 

The  Christmas  Conference  a  Meeting  of  Destiny 

The  Leaders:  Asbury  and  Coke. — The  Stir  in  Baltimore. — Asbury 
the  Decisive  Character.— John  Dickins  and  Other  Notable 
Characters. 

EARLY  in  the  morning  of  Friday,  December  24,  1784, 
a  little  company  of  serious  men  rode  out  through  the 
grounds  of  Perry  Hall  and  along  the  highway  to  Bal- 
timore. There  was  Asbury,  in  deep  meditation,  wholly  de- 
voted to  the  cause,  but  resolved  to  be  guided  in  his  decision 
by  the  wishes  of  his  American  brethren.  There  was  Coke, 
nervous,  impatient  of  delay,  and  eager  to  set  in  operation  the 
ecclesiastical  organism  which  Wesley  and  he  had  devised. 
There  were  Whatcoat  and  Vasey,  zealous  to  promote  the 
highest  interests  of  Wesleyan  Christianity.  There  was 
young  William  Black  from  Nova  Scotia,  providentially  sent 
to  arouse  the  missionary  ardor  of  the  infant  Church.  No 
doubt  there  were  others,  tried  and  faithful  itinerants,  to 
whom  the  doors  of  the  Gough  mansion  always  stood  open. 
They  might  well  wonder  what  their  leaders  would  do  at  the 
Conference  now  about  to  be  held,  to  which  the  preachers,  far 
and  near,  had  been  summoned  in  hot  haste. 

The  Methodist  folk  of  Baltimore  were  already  astir.      Many 

humble  householders  in  the  city  were  proud  to  entertain  the 

294 


Baltimore  Hospitality 


295 


preachers  who  for  a  week  past  had  been  arriving  from  their 
distant  fields  of  labor,  and   from   scores  of  family  altars  that 


ESS  ..  .i..f 


■ 

h /-//si,/.  /'/.(,■>//'/,■/„/,/■/?/  r/  //".  ft'//- 


morning  went  up  an  earnest  prayer  that  the  work  which  that 
day  was  to  inaugurate  might  be  for  the  glory  of  God. 

The  preachinghouse  in  Lovely  Lane  had  been  prepared 
for  the  sessions  of  the  constitutional  convention — for  such  it 
was,  rather  than  a  Methodist  Conference  of  the  usual  sort.    It 


296  American  Methodism 

was  now  ten  years  since  this  chapel  was  erectea ;  almost  ex- 
actly ten  years  since  its  fresh  walls  had  echoed  with  the  elo- 
quence of  the  one-eyed  redcoat,  Captain  Webb.  Thoughtful  * 
for  the  comfort  of  the  preachers,  the  people  had  somewhat 
softened  its  austerity  for  the  midwinter  assembly  by  setting 
up  a  large  wood  stove  in  the  auditorium  and  adding  backs 
to  the  cushionless  benches. 

About  sixty  of  the  eighty  or  more  American  preachers 
were  in  their  places  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  Friday, 
December  24,  when  the  first  session  of  the  Christmas  Confer- 
ence— so  called  because  it  sat  at  Christmastide — was  formally 
opened  with  the  invocation  of  the  divine  blessing  and  a 
ringing  Wesleyan  hymn  of  praise.  A  few  were  doubtless 
detained  by  the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  the  stress  of  pov- 
erty, and  the  long  distance  to  be  traversed  from  their  appoint- 
ments. The  most  conspicuous  absentee  was  Jesse  Lee,  then 
in  the  far  South,  who  was  inclined  to  blame  Garrettson,  the 
herald,  for  not  reaching  him  earlier  with  the  summons  to 
attend. 

The  roll  of  the  Christmas  Conference  is  difficult  to  recon- 
struct. Stevens  assures  us  of  the  presence  of  the  following 
preachers :  Thomas  Coke,  Francis  Asbury,  Richard  What- 
coat,  Thomas  Vasey,  William  Black,  Freeborn  Garrettson, 
James  O.  Cromwell,  William  Gill,  Reuben  Ellis,  Le  Roy 
Cole,  Richard  Ivey,  James  O'Kelly,  John  Haggerty,  Nelson 
Reed,  John  Dickins,  William  Glendenning,  Jeremiah  Lam- 
bert, Francis  Poythress,  Joseph  Everett,  William  Phcebus, 
and  Thomas  Ware.  To  this  list  Atkinson  adds  the  names  of 
John  Smith,  Caleb  Boyer,  Ignatius  Pigman,  Edward  Drum- 
gole,  Ira  Ellis,  Jonathan  Forrest,  Lemuel  Green,  and  Wil- 
liam Watters,  who  had  married  and  was  just  retiring  from  the 
active  ministry. 


In  Lovely  Lane  Meetinghouse 


297 


As  Coke,  himself  under  forty,  looked  out  from  his  place  as 
chairman  over  the  men  in  black  coats  and  homespun  who  sat 
before  him  on  the  benches,  he  was  impressed  by  their  youth. 
Asbury,  who  was  of  the  eldest,  had  not  yet  turned  his  fortieth 
year,  and  William  Watters  was  only  thirty-three.  These  two 
veterans  were  the  only  links  between  the  first  Conference  of  the 


Upon  fhis  Site  stood 
pcomjyjq :  toy j  86 

;  !e  Lovely  Lan£ Meeting  House  f 

in^hicKTvas  organized 

December^  84  | 

He  METhfODisT  Episcopal  QluRChf  f 

inThe  United  States  of 

:  America  I 


MEMORIAL   TABLET,    MARKING   THE    SITE   OF   THE    LOVELY    LANE 
MEETING    HOUSE,    BALTIMORE,    MD. 

American  preachers,  held  by  Thomas  Rankin  at  Philadelphia 
in  1773,  and  this  convention  of  1784.  Perhaps  half  a  dozen  of 
the  members  of  the  Christmas  Conference  had  traveled  as  long- 
as  eight  years,  but  the  majority  of  those  present  had  been  re- 
cruited within  the  past  quadrennium.  Scarcely  one  in  six 
was  a  married  man. 

Without  exception  the  most  notable  figure  in  the  Confer- 
ence, the  man  in  whom,  under  Cod,  were  bound  up  the  des- 
tinies of  the  Church,  was  Francis  Asbury.  He  had  come  to 
America  when  the  work  was  in    its   feeblest  stages,  and  by 


298  American  Methodism 

his  rigid  enforcement  of  discipline,  and  insistence  upon  a 
circulation  of  the  preachers  and  the  necessity  of  pushing  out 
into  new  fields,  he  had  saved  the  Methodist  societies  from 
stagnation  if  not  disintegration.  He  alone  of  the  British 
Wesleyan  missionaries  who  came  out  before  the  Revolution 
had  faced  the  storm  of  war,  and,  confident  of  the  triumph  of 
the  new  nation  and  enthusiastically  hopeful  for  its  future,  he 
had  single-handed  held  the  societies  together  through  these 
trying  times.  He  was  what  he  had  been  when  he  crossed 
the  sea,  a  layman — simply  a  Methodist  traveling  preacher — 
yet  by  the  consent  of  his  fellows  he  had  continued  to  act  as 
general  superintendent,  and  every  year  to  travel  through 
the  connection  to  inspect  the  work  and  devise  plans  for  its 
extension.  How  the  preachers  viewed  his  labors  is  evident 
from  a  letter  written  by  one  of  them,  Edward  Drumgole,  to 
Wesley  in  1783,  when  fears  were  rife  among  them  that  As- 
bury  might  be  recalled  to  England  :  ' '  The  preachers  at  pres- 
ent are  united  to  Mr.  Asbury  and  esteem  him  very  highly  in 
love  for  his  work's  sake,  and  earnestly  desire  his  continuance 
on  the  [American]  continent  during  his  natural  life,  and  to 
act  as  he  does  at  present — to  wit,  to  superintend  the  whole 
work  and  go  through  all  the  circuits  once  a  year.  He  is  now 
well  acquainted  with  the  country,  with  the  preachers  and 
people,  and  has  a  large  share  in  the  affections  of  both ;  there- 
fore they  would  not  willingly  part  with  him." 

There  was  Garrettson,  the  herald  of  the  Conference,  young, 
hopeful,  diligent,  forceful,  and  refined,  already  a  veteran  in 
service  though  young  in  years.  He  was  destined  to  extend 
the  bounds  of  Methodism  up  the  Hudson  and  westward 
toward  the  lakes.  The  superior  of  most  of  his  associates  in 
education  and  family  connections,  he  was  destined  to  become 
connected  by  marriage  with  one  of  the  great  colonial  families 


Black  Coats  and  Homespun  299 

of  New  York  and  make  his  mansion  a  hospitable  home  for 
the  preachers  on  the  district  of  New  York,  of  which  he  be- 
came the  firs!  presiding  elder. 

There  was  the  Delaware  tailor,  William  Gill,  who  had  so 
informed  his  mind  by  reading-  and  thought  as  to  command  no 
less  a  critic  than  Benjamin  Rush,  who  pronounced  him  "  the 
greatest  divine  he  had  ever  heard."  "  I  knew  no  one  who 
had  such  depth  of  knowledge,  both  of  men  and  things,  as  he 
possessed,"  wrote  Jesse  Lee,  upon  his  untimely  death  in 
1788.  James  O'Kelly,  who  was  to  be  the  first  to  rebel  against 
the  discipline  of  the  new  Church,  was  present  at  its  birth — a 
man  of  warm  heart  and  "  fervent  devotion,"  "very  affecting  " 
in  his  preaching,  and  "  one  of  the  most  laborious  and  popular 
evangelists  of  that  day."  He  was  greatly  beloved  by  his 
fellow-preachers,  especially  in  the  South,  and  his  secession, 
eight  years  later,  disturbed  the  loyalty  of  many. 

A  short,  thick-set  young  man,  alert  of  body  and  mind,  and 
apt  to  indulge  in  argument,  was  Nelson  Reed,  a  Marylander, 
now  in  his  sixth  year  of  a  service  which  was  to  continue  for 
nearly  sixty  years  longer,  until  at  his  death,  in  1840,  he 
should  be  the  oldest  Methodist  preacher  in  the  world.  He 
was  a  man  of  conspicuous  talents  as  a  preacher  and  adminis- 
trator, and  his  unswerving  independence  and  frankness  of 
speech  made  him,  if  not  in  this  Conference,  at  least  in  some 
of  the  General  Conferences  which  succeeded  it,  the  outspoken 
champion  of  the  American  preachers  against  Bishop  Coke's 
disposition  to  manage  the  preachers  on  this  side  the  water 
with  as  high  a  hand  as  Wesley  carried  among  the  British 
itinerants. 

Few  men  who  sat  on  the  hard  boards  of  the  chapel  in 
Lovely  Lane  through  that  chill  December  week  were  so  re- 
spected  by  their   fellows   or  have   deserved  so   well   of  the 


300  American  Methodism 

Church  as  the  preacher  in  charge  of  the  New  York  society, 
John  Dickins.  He  was  of  English  birth,  and  had  the  advan- 
tage of  classical  training  at  Eton  College  before  he  came  to 
America.  A  scholarly  man,  of  careful  judgment  and  wise  in 
counsel,  he  was  also  accounted  powerful  as  a  preacher  of  the 
Gospel,  and  even  Asbury,  who  was  not  profuse  of  compli- 
ment, declared  that  "  for  piety,  probity,  profitable  preaching, 
holy  living,  Christian  education  of  his  children,  and  secret 
closet  prayer  "  his  superior  was  hardly  to  be  found  in  Europe 
or  America.  Until  1784  his  work  had  been  in  the  South, 
but  after  the  war  Asbury  had  set  him  to  the  difficult  task  of 
reviving  the  society  in  New  York.  His  fertile  mind  was 
teeming  with  plans  for  the  good  of  Methodism.  Already  he 
had  discussed  with  Asbury  the  plans  for  a  Methodist  Latin 
school.  He  has  the  credit  of  originating  the  name  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  securing  its  adoption  at  the 
Christmas  Conference,  and  a  few  years  later  he  was  to  be 
chosen  first  book  steward  and  to  give  the  last  years  of  his  life 
to  the  founding  of  that  humble  publishing  house  which  has 
developed  into  the  Methodist  Book  Concern. 

William  Glendenning,  the  eccentric  Scotch  preacher,  was 
a  man  of  quite  another  sort ;  one  who  dreamed  dreams  and 
saw  visions.  His  erratic  nature  was  ill  suited  to  the  new 
order.  First  he  dissented  from  its  discipline,  and  followed 
O' Kelly  out  of  the  connection,  and  finally  he  forsook  its  doc- 
trines and  became  a  Unitarian. 

Strangely  as  it  reads  at  this  day,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that 
not  more  than  half  a  dozen  of  the  members  of  the  Christmas 
Conference  had  ever  seen  the  western  slope  of  the  Allegha- 
nies.  The  humble  and  pious  Jeremiah  Lambert,  a  native  of 
New  Jersey,  was  the  first  Methodist  preacher  who  had  been 
appointed  (1783)  to    labor    in    that  region,   which   the   next 


The  Stuff  These   Men  Were  Made  of  301 

quarter  century  was  to  make  the  stronghold  of  American 
Methodism.  This  Conference  was  to  recognize  his  grace  and 
gifts  as  a  pioneer  by  sending  him  out  to  the  island  of  Antigua 
as  a  missionary,  but  failing  health  cut  short  his  useful  career. 
Francis  Poythress  was  another  of  the  pioneers  who  had  pene- 
trated to  the  new  settlements  on  the  Western  waters  and  had 
braved  perils  of  the  Indians,  and  he  was  the  first  Methodist  to 
carry  the  Gospel  to  the  frontiersmen  of  Kentucky.  He  was 
of  excellent  Virginia  ancestry,  but  a  profligate  whom  the 
preaching  of  the  good  rector  Jarratt  had  reclaimed.  He  was 
providentially  to  be  the  "apostle  of  Methodism  in  the  South- 
west," and  to  win  the  hearty  approval  of  Asbury. 

Maryland  was  the  mother  of  Methodist  preachers  of  the 
first  generation,  and  many  of  the  spiritual  sons  of  Straw- 
bridge  and  Watters  assisted  at  the  founding  of  the  Church. 
Notable  among  them  was  William  Phoebus,  of  Somerset 
County,  Md.  ;  a  thoughtful  preacher,  who  some  years  after- 
ward located  in  the  city  of  New  York,  where  he  practiced 
medicine.  He  had  talents  and  taste  for  letters,  and  "for 
some  time  edited  a  magazine  "  which  was  circulated  in  the 
denomination. 

Le  Roy  Cole  and  Richard  Ivey  were  two  Virginians  who 
had  already  given  earnest  of  the  faithfulness  with  which  they 
were  to  serve  the  cause.  Reuben  Ellis,  of  North  Carolina, 
was  one  of  the  less  conspicuous  members;  a  man  of  large 
frame,  slow  of  speech,  and  of  sure  rather  than  brilliant  parts. 
He  was  the  type  of  many  a  brother  since  who  has  given  him- 
self unreservedlv  to  the  Lord's  work  without  seeking  the 
praise  of  men.  John  Haggerty  was  one  of  John  King's  con- 
verts in  Prince  George  County,  Md.  ;  a  man  of  commanding 
person,  robust,  erect,  energetic,  with  prominent  features  and 
a  noble,  intellectual  forehead. 


302  American  Methodism 

Caleb  Boyer,  of  Delaware,  "  the  St.  Paul  of  the  denomina- 
tion," who  had  been  awakened  by  one  of  Garrettson's  sermons 
under  his  father's  own  roof,  was  there.  So  was  the  ex- Pap- 
ist, Edward  Drumgole,  who  had  come  from  Ireland  fifteen 
years  before  with  an  introduction  to  Strawbridge,  who  was 
to  introduce  him  to  a  personal  Saviour. 

In  young  Ira  Ellis  were  capacities  which,  said  Asbury, 
"  had  fortune  given  him  the  same  advantages  of  education," 
would  have  ranked  him  with  his  fellow- Virginians,  Jefferson 
and  Madison. 

It  is  doubtful  if  a  rougher  spoken  man  than  Joseph 
Everett  sat  within  sound  of  Coke's  gavel.  He  had  grown 
to  manhood  swearing,  lying,  and  passionate,  and,  though 
belonging  to  a  Church  of  England  parish  in  Maryland, 
without  ever  having  heard  a  Gospel  sermon.  "I  chose  a 
wife,"  says  he,  "who  was  as  willing  to  go  to  the  devil  as 
I  was."  The  Whitefieldites  first  touched  him  with  a  sense 
of  sin,  but  the  Calvinism  confused  him  and  threw  him  back 
into  evil  courses.  He  served  in  the  patriot  army  and  during 
the  war  came  in  contact  with  the  Methodists,  and  thus  into 
the  light.  He  "studied  divinity  at  the  plow,  ax,  or  hoe," 
and  in  1780  was  licensed  to  exhort.  His.  exceeding  hatred 
of  sin  and  the  sledge-hammer  force  of  his  rough  eloquence 
were  especially  effective  among  the  country  people.  He 
continued  to  thunder  through  the  Middle  States  for  thirty 
years. 

Thomas  Ware  had  been  but  one  year  in  the  itinerancy 
when  the  Conference  met.  He  was  one  of  Caleb  Pedicord's 
converts  in  New  Jersey,  and  was  during  a  long  life  "a  steady 
light  among  the  preachers.      He  died  at  Salem,  N.  J.,  in  1842. 


'1    LOCtt,    gggj    A.L    *H£    ^VQRLD   AS    MY    PARISH 


CHAPTER    XXXI 

Great  Scenes  in  Lovely  Lane 

The  Reading  OF  Wesley's  Communication.— Pro  and  Cox.— Adoption 
of  Wesley's  Flan.  — A  Chirch  Organized.— Ascl  ry  Chosen  Gen- 
eral Slperin  r  en  den  r.— Coke's  Sermon.— Ordinations.  —  A  Popu- 
lar Move. 

THE  devotion  over,  in  the  little  chapel,  the  first  business 
was  to  hear  what  Wesley  had  to  say.  Dr.  Coke,  as 
his  representative,  was  chairman  of  the  convention, 
and  read  the  Bristol  address  "To  Dr.  Coke,  Mr.  Asbury, 
and  our  brethren  in  Xorth  America."  In  it  Wesley  recited 
the  extraordinary  conditions  to  which  the  successful  revolt  of 
the  English  colonies  had  subjected  the  American  societies. 
He  asserted  his  spiritual  power  to  ordain  ministers,  and  an- 
nounced the  appointment  of  Coke  and  Asbury  "  to  be  joint 
superintendents  over  our  brethren  in  Xorth  America  ;  as  also 
Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Vasey  to  act  as  elders  araonsr 
them."  Furthermore,  he  recommended  to  the  preachers  the 
modified  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England.  In  conclusion, 
he  presented  four  grounds  of  separation  from  the  Church  of 
England,  and  says:  ••  They  [the  Americans]  are  now  at  full 
liberty  both  to  follow  the  Scriptures  and  the  primitive  Church. 
And  we  judge  it  best  that  they  should  stand  fast  in  the  lib- 
erty wherewith  God  has  so  strangely  set  them  free." 

3°3 


304 


American   Methodism 


Thomas  Ware  tells  us  that  the  letter  was  not  only  read, 
but  "analyzed,"  and  Asbury  speaks  of  the  Conference  as  "  de- 
bating freely  and  determining-  all  things  by  a  majority  of 
votes."  The  American  preachers  were  evidently  disposed 
to  weigh  carefully  even  Wesley's  proposals. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  session  the  preachers  agreed  with- 
out a  dissenting  vote  to  form  themselves  into   "an  episcopal 


ASBURY  S    CONSECRATION    AS    IJ1SH0P. 


Church,  and  to  have  superintendents,  elders,  and  deacons." 
The  Prayer  Book  of  the  Church  of  England,  abridged  and 
revised  by  Wesley,  and  entitled  Sunday  Service  for  Metho- 
dists in  America,  was  adopted,  and  the  ministers  were  to 
be  ordained  "by  a  presbytery,  using  the  Episcopal  form." 
Persons  to  be  ordained  were  to  be  nominated  by  the  super- 
intendent, elected  by  the  Conference,  and  ordained  by  im- 
position of  hands  of  the  superintendent  and  elders. 

On   the   second   day — which   was  Christmas — Asbury  was 


Asbury's  Ordination  by  Coke  305 

ordained  deacon  by  Coke;  Vas'ey  and  Whatcoat  assisting. 
On  the  following  day,  Sunday,  they  ordained  him  elder,  and 
on  Monday,  December  27,  he  was  formally  set  apart  as  "su- 
perintendent;" his  good  friend  Otterbein,  the  German  min- 
ister of  Baltimore,  participating  in  the  rite.  Asbury  had  not 
accepted  Wesley's  appointment  as  authoritative,  but  had 
submitted  the  matter  to  the  preachers,  who  unanimously 
elected  him. 

The  sermon  preached  by  Dr.  Coke  at  the  consecration  of 
Francis  Asbury  to  the  office  of  superintendent  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church  was  printed  in  a  pamphlet  of  twenty- 
two  pages.  The  preacher  spoke  of  the  Anglican  Church  in 
America  as  follows:  "The  churches  had  in  general  been 
filled  by  the  parasites  and  bottle  companions  of  the  rich  and 
great.  The  humble  and  importunate  entreaties  of  their  op- 
pressed flocks  were  contemned  and  despised.  The  drunkard, 
the  fornicator,  and  the  extortioner  triumphed  over  bleeding 
Zion,  because  they  were  faithful  abettors  of  the  ruling  powers. 
But  these  intolerable  fetters  were  now  struck  oft,  and  the 
antichristian  union  which  before  subsisted  between  Church 
and  State  was  broken  asunder."  Further  on  he  defended 
Wesley's  authority  to  ordain,  and  said,  "Besides,  we  have 
every  qualification  for  an  episcopal  Church  which  that  of 
Alexandria  possessed  for  two  hundred  years;  our  bishops  or 
superintendents  (as  we  rather  call  them)  having  been  elected 
by  the  suffrages  of  the  whole  body  of  our  ministers  through- 
out the  continent,  assembled  in  General  Conference." 

After  dilating  tipon  the  influence  of  an  irreligious  bishop 
Coke  turned  to  the  newly  made  superintendent  and  exhorted 
him  in  glowing  words:  "But  thou,  O  man  of  God,  follow 
after  righteousness,  godliness,  patience,  and  meekness.  Be 
an   example   to   the    believers   in   word,    in   conversation,   in 


306  American  Methodism 

charity,  in  faith,  in  purity.  Keep  that  which  is  committed 
to  thy  trust.  Be  not  ashamed  of  the  testimony  of  the  Lord, 
but  a  partaker  of  the  afflictions  of  the  Gospel,  according  to 
the  power  of  God.  Endure  hardness  as  a  good  soldier  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Do  the  work  of  an  evangelist  and  make  full 
proof  of  thy  ministry,  and  thy  God  will  open  to  thee  a  wide 
door  which  all  thy  enemies  shall  not  be  able  to  shut.  He 
will  carry  his  Gospel  by  thee  from  sea  to  sea  and  from  one 
end  of  the  continent  to  another.  O  Thou,  who  art  the  Holy 
One  and  the  True,  consecrate  this  thy  servant  with  the  fire 
of  divine  love  •,  separate  him  for  thy  glorious  purpose  -,  make 
him  a  star  in  thine  own  right  hand,  and  fulfill  in  him  and  by 
him  the  good  pleasure  of  thy  goodness!" 

The  rest  of  the  week  was  devoted  to  the  formulation  of  a 
Discipline  and  the  election  of  the  preachers  to  be  ordained — 
for  by  no  means  had  all  the  new  itinerants  been  received  at 
once  to  ministerial  orders. 

We  may  judge  safely  of  Coke's  general  impression  of  the 
American  preachers,  and  especially  of  their  justice  in  selec- 
tion of  candidates  for  their  companionship  in  labors,  by  his 
own  words:  "  I  admire  the  American  preachers.  They  are, 
indeed,  a  body  of  devoted,  disinterested  men,  but  most  of 
them  young.  The  spirit  in  which  they  conducted  them- 
selves in  choosing  the  elders  was  most  pleasing.  I  believe 
they  acted  without  being  at  all  influenced  by  friendship, 
resentment,  or  prejudice,  both  in  choosing  and  rejecting." 

The  elders  chosen  for  the  United  States  were :  John  Tun- 
nell,  William  Gill,  Le  Roy  Cole,  Nelson  Reed,  John  Hag- 
gerty,  Reuben  Ellis,  Richard  Ivey,  Henry  Willis,  James 
O'Kelly,  and  Beverly  Allen.  John  Dickins,  Ignatius  Pigman, 
and  Caleb  Boyer  were  also  chosen  deacons.  Three  other 
elders  were   chosen   and  ordained  for  the  missionar}*  enter- 


Ordained  for  Missions 


307 


prises  which  were  so  near  Coke's  heart:  Jeremiah  Lambert, 
for  service  in  Antigua,  where  Wesleyan  Methodism  had 
sprung  up  from  a  wind-borne  seed,  and  Freeborn  Garrettson 
and  James  O.  Cromwell   for  especial  service  in  Nova  Scotia. 


FHOM    A   UTHQL.I 


REV.    PHILIP   OTTERBKIX. 

Asbury's  admirer  and  friend,  who  assisted  at  his  consecration 
to  the  superintendency. 

whose  claims  had  been  personally  presented  to  the  Confer- 
ence. William  Black,  a  young-  English -born  Methodist,  had 
been  preaching  faithfully  in  that  British  province,  but  his 
own  education  was  sadly  deficient  and  the  field  was  growing 


308  American   Methodism 

far  beyond  his  power  to  direct  it.  In  his  distress  for  souls 
he  turned  to  the  American  brethren  for  assistance,  and 
chanced  to  arrive  in  Maryland  at  the  very  time  when  Coke, 
who  was  all  on  fire  with  missionary  zeal,  was  about  to  meet 
the  preachers  in  General  Conference.  His  appeals  were  met 
with  the  offer  of  Garrettson  and  Cromwell,  two  highly  efficient 
laborers,  and  in  response  to  Coke's  sermon  £$0  was  raised 
among  the  preachers  for  the  northern  mission. 

Black  was  deeply  impressed  with  the  spirit  of  the  gather- 
ing. No  doubt  the  generous  response  to  his  appeal  for  rein- 
forcement in  his  own  field  added  largely  to  his  admiration  of 
the  Conference  as  a  whole,  when  he  could  write :  "Perhaps 
such  a  number  of  holy,  zealous,  godly  men  never  met  to- 
gether in  Maryland ;  perhaps  not  on  the  continent  of 
America." 

On  the  second  Sabbath  twelve  elders  and  one  deacon  were 
ordained,  and  the  Conference  closed  "in  great  peace  and 
unanimity."  Coke  preached  daily  at  noon,  and  other  mem- 
bers preached  morning  and  evening  in  the  two  Methodist 
chapels  and  in  the  Rev.  Mr.  Otterbein's  church. 

Without  question  the  most  significant  and  far-reaching 
event  of  the  Christmas  Conference  was  the  consecration  of 
Asbury  as  general  superintendent.  Wesley  had  the  best  of 
reasons  for  his  selection.  First,  we  must  bear  in  mind  the 
confidential  correspondence  with  Asbury  himself,  who  in 
1783  had  written  the  following  letter  to  Wesley:  "No  per- 
son can  manage  the  lay  preachers  here  so  well,  it  is  thought, 
as  one  that  has  been  at  the  raising  of  most  of  them.  No 
man  can  make  a  proper  change  upon  paper  to  send  one  here 
and  another  [there]  without  knowing  the  circuits,  and  the  gifts 
of  all  the  preachers,  unless  he  is  always  out  among  them. 
My  dear  sir,  a  matter  of   the  greatest  consequence  now  lies 


Sanction  of  a  College  Project  311 

before  you.  If  you  send  preachers  to  America,  let  them  be 
the  proper  persons.  .  .  .  This  I  know,  great  men  that  can 
do  good  may  do  hurt  if  they  should  take  the  wrong  road.  I 
have  labored  and  suffered  much  to  keep  the  people  and 
preachers  together;  and,  if  I  am  thought  worthy  to  keep  my 
place,  I  should  be  willing  to  labor  and  suffer  till  death  for 
peace  and  union." 

Of  Asbury's  relation  to  the  American  preachers  Wesley 
was  kept  fully  informed  by  other  trusted  correspondents. 
Perhaps  the  most  important  letter  which  reached  him  on  this 
subject,  and  which  may  have  finally  decided  him  upon  the 
selection  of  this  remarkable  man  to  lead  officially,  as  already 
he  had  been  leading  practically,  the  new  Church  in  the 
United  States,  was  a  letter  of  Edward.  Drumgole,  in  1783: 
"The  preachers  at  present  are  united  to  Mr.  Asbury,  and 
esteem  him  very  highly  in  love  for  his  work's  sake,  and 
earnestly  desire  his  continuance  on  the  [American]  continent 
during  his  natural  life,  and  to  act  as  he  does  at  present;  to 
wit,  to  superintend  the  whole  work,  and  go  through  all  the 
circuits  once  a  year.  He  is  now  well  acquainted  with  the 
country,  with  the  preachers  and  people,  and  has  a  large  share 
in  the  affections  of  both  ;  therefore  they  would  not  willingly 
part  with  him." 

Xext  in  importance  to  the  official  designation  of  Asbury  to 
leadership  in  America  we  must  reckon  the  first  measure 
toward  establishing  a  school  for  the  young  people  of  the  new 
Church.  John  Dickins,  with  the  Eton  of  his  boyhood  in  mind, 
had  already  proposed  a  Latin  school,  and  the  time  was  now 
ripe  for  the  measure.  Accordingly,  at  the  first  General  Con- 
ference, on  Xew  Year's  Day,  1785,  the  project  of  a  college 
was  duly  considered  and  approved.  Asbury  and  Coke  had 
already  deliberated    upon  the  measure  and  now  gave  it  their 


e*  P      C.    FLINTOFF. 


312  American  Methodism 

full  sanction.  The  result  was  Cokesbury  College,  of  which  an 
account  will  follow  in  due  order. 

It  cannot  be  questioned  that  there  was  doubt  as  to  how  the 
enactments  of  the  Christmas  Conference  would  be  received 
by  the  Methodists  throughout  the  country.  The  suddenness 
of  the  summons,  the  revolutionary  declaration  for  a  new 
Church,  and  the  many  important  decisions  of  the  Confer- 
ence came  with  great  surprise.  But  the 
reception  of  the  news  was  most  hearty  and 
widespread.  Watters  declares:  "We  be- 
came, instead  of  a  religious  society,  a 
separate  Church.  This  gave  great  satis- 
faction through  all  our  societies."  Ezekiel 
corporate     seal     Cooper  says :  "  This  step  met  with  general 

OF  THE  METHODIST  t       ,•  -t       ,<  ,1  i  j 

approbation,  both  anions'  the  preachers  and 

EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  rI  OX 

ix  new  vork  city,  members.  Perhaps  we  shall  seldom  find 
adopted  1789.  such  unanimity  of  sentiment  upon  any 
question  of  such  magnitude."  Jesse  Lee  says:  "The 
Methodists  were  pretty  generally  pleased  at  our  becoming 
a  Church,  and  heartily  united  together  in  the  plan  which 
the  Conference  had  adopted;  and  from  that  time  religion 
greatly  revived." 

The  Old  Book,  so  called,  of  Wesley  Chapel,  in  Xew  York 
city,  has  several  entries  in  1785  which  testify  to  the  organic 
change  which  had  transformed  the  scattered  Wesleyan 
societies  of  America  into  a  Church  : 

Jan.  8.     To  2  prayer-books  for  preaching  house,  £0  13s.  o^. 

To  cash  paid  for  the  altar-piece,    ■  -  -      16   16     I 

The  "altar-piece"  was  probably  the  altar  rail,  now  first  intro- 
duced to  accommodate  those  who  communed.  Hitherto  the 
Xew  York  Methodists  had  attended  Trinity,  St.  Paul's,  or  St. 


Asbury  in  Gown  and  Band  313 

George's  Church  for  the  sacrament.  Coke's  Journal  alludes 
to  this  change  :  "  We  expected  that  this  society  would  have 
made  the  greatest  opposition  to  our  plan,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, they  have  been  most  forward  to  promote  it.  They 
have  already  put  up  a  reading  desk  and  railed  in  a  communion 
table."  A  lew  months  later  the  same  record  speaks  of  the 
"trustees  to  the  church" — a  new  name,  verily,  for  Embury's 
modest  preachinghouse ! 

As  to  the  official  appearance  of  a  bishop,  subsequent  to 
the  Christmas  Conference,  we  have  this  testimony  of  Quin, 
then  a  young  man,  but  afterward  an  honored  preacher,  who 
witnessed  an  ordination  service  at  the  Conference  at  Union- 
town,  Pa.,  in  1788.  He  says,  "  Mr.  Asbury  officiated,  not 
in  the  costume  of  a  lawn-robed  prelate,  but  as  the  plain  pres- 
byter, in  gown  and  band."  Whatcoat,  who  assisted,  wore 
"the  same  clerical  habit."  These  vestments,  however,  proved 
totally  unfit  for  the  hard  conditions  of  itinerant  life,  and  were 
soon  discarded,  even  by  the  bishop  himself. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 
The  First  American  Episcopal  Church 

Meager  Reports  of  the  Christmas  Conference.— The  Sunday  Serv- 
ice.—Articles  of  Religion.— Officers  of  the  Church.— Support 
of  the  Preachers.— The  Annual  Conferences. 


NO  journal  of  the  debates  of  the  Christmas  Conference 
has  been  preserved,  and  the  recorded  memories  of 
those  preachers  who  participated  in  its  deliberations 
are  lamentably  meager.  When  good  Father  Ware,  the  last 
survivor  among  its  members,  published  his  recollections 
every  detail  had  faded  from  his  mind  except  the  matter  of 
the  selection  of  a  name  for  the  new  organization.  For  him- 
self, he  remembered  that  he  would  have  been  satisfied  with 
"The  Methodist  Church,"  but  when  another  brother — John 
Dickins,  he  believes  was  the  man — proposed  that  it  be  called 
"The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church"  the  brethren  unani- 
mously approved  the  suggestion.  Thus  the  new  body  by  its 
name  proclaimed  itself 'a  Church,  claimed  connection  with 
the  "people  called  Methodists,"  whom  the  preaching  of  the 
Wesleys  had  raised  up,  and  declared  its  form  of  government 
by  general  superintendents  or  bishops.      In   this  wise,  also, 

the  taunt  which  careless  Oxonians  had  flung  at  the  method - 

3i4 


Minutes  of  Several  Conversations 


315 


ically  pious  hand  of  university  students  fifty  years  before  be- 
came the  denominational  sign  of  the  most  numerous  Protes- 
tant   body    in    the 

MINUTES 


Of  SEVERAL.  CONVERSATIONS 

BETWEEN 

The   Rev.  TflOMAS    COKE,  ll.   d. 
The  Rev.  FRANCIS    ASBURY 

AN  D   OTHERS, 


world. 

In  the  absence  of 
a  journal  of  the  de- 
liberations of  the 
memorable  Christ- 
mas Conference  we 
must  look  to  its 
enactments  for  a 
summary  of  its 
work.  These  are 
found  in  the  first 
edition  of  the  Dis- 
cipline, or,  to  put  it 
precisely,  in  the 
precious  little  pam- 
phlet entitled  Min- 
utes of  Several  Con- 
versations between 
the  Rev.  Thomas 
Coke,  LL.D.,  the 
Rev.  Francis  As- 
bury,  and  Others, 
at  a  Conference, 
begun  in  Baltimore, 
in  theState  of  Mary- 
land, on  Monday,  htle-page  of  the  first  edition  of  the  dis- 
the  27th  of  Decern-  cum. ink. 

ber,  in  the  Year  1784.      Composing  a  Form  of  Discipline  for 
the  Ministers, Preachers,  and  Other  Members  of  the  Methodist 


.\r  a.  CONFERENCE,  begun 

in  Baltimore,  in  the  State  of  Marylanp, 

on-  Monday,  the  Vjth.  of  December, 

in  the  Year  1784. 

CY -posing  a  FORM    of  DISCIPLINE 

for  the  Ministers,  Preachers  ans 

other  Members  of  the  Methodic  r 

Episcopal  Church  in 

A     M     E     R     I     C     A. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

I'rintitj  by  C  HARLES.  CIST,  in   Arcj*. 

Street,  ifre  Corner  of  Fourth-Street. 


M,DCC,LXXXV, 


316  American  Methodism 

Episcopal  Church  in  America.  Philadelphia:  Printed  by 
Charles  Cist,  in  Arch  Street,  the  Corner  of  Fourth  Street. 
M.DCC.LXXXV. 

The  original  basis  of  the  first  American  Discipline  was  the 
so-called  "  Large  Minutes  "  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Confer- 
ence, a  volume  which  Wesley  had  culled  from  the  Annual 
Minutes  of  the  Conference  in  England.  The  American 
societies  had  hitherto  been  governed  in  accordance  with 
these  Minutes,  as  modified  from  time  to  time  to  fit  the  con- 
ditions of  the  local  work.  From  the  "  Large  Minutes"  and 
the  Minutes  of  the  American  Conference  (1773- 1784)  Coke 
and  Asbury  produced  a  body  of  rules  and  standards  which 
the  Christmas  Conference  approved  and  made  official.  With 
this  were  adopted  A  Collection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns  for  the 
Lord's  Day,  by  the  Wesleys,  and  the  prayer  book  which 
Wesley  had  framed  for  America  from  the  historic  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  which  bore 
the  title,  The  Sunday  Service  of  the  Methodists  in  North 
America,  with  Other  Occasional  Services.  Besides  the  forms 
of  public  prayer,  and  the  lessons  to  be  read,  the  book  con- 
tained "The  Form  and  Manner  of  Making  and  Ordaining 
of  Superintendents,  Elders,  and  Deacons,"  and  the  "Articles 
of  Religion."  This  bore  the  date,  London,  1784.  It  appears 
that  Wesley  intended  by  means  of  this  liturgy  to  preserve  a 
bond  of  union  between  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in 
North  America  and  the  mother  Church  of  England,  of  which 
he  ever  considered  the  British  Methodists  a  part.  It  was 
adopted  by  the  Christmas  Conference  without  dissent,  and 
has  never  been  legally  abrogated.  But  its  forms  were  not 
suited  to  the  rough-and-ready  work  of  a  pioneer  Church 
in  a  new  country,  and  the  multiplication  of  love  feasts  and 
similar  irregular  services  so  broke   in  upon  its  order  that  it 


The   Service   Book 


317 


COLLECTION 


O  F 


soon  fell  into  disuse.  Five  editions  of  the  service  book 
have  been  noted  (1784,  1 7S5 ,  1 786,  1788,  1792),  but  by  the 
beginning  of  this  century  it  had  largely  disappeared  from 
the  churches,  and  it  is  now  scarcely  a  memory,  though 
within  recent  years  it  has 
been  reissued  by  the  Book 
Concern  in  slightly  modi- 
fied form,  and  has  found 
some  acceptance.  Copies 
of  the  earlier  editions  are 
among  the  prime  rarities 
of  American  collectors. 

The  preface  to  The 
Sunday  .Service  of  the 
Methodists  in  North 
America  Avas  dated  Bris- 
tol, September  9,  1784 — 
only  a  few  days,  there- 
fore, before  the  newly 
ordained  ministers  sailed 
thence  fortheXewWorld. 
In  it  "Weslev  savs  : 


Pfalms  and  Hymns 


FOR     THE 


LOR   DY    D    A   Y. 


PUBLISHED     BY 

'JOHN     WESLEY,     M.   A. 
Late  Fellow  of Imcdn-VcUigt,  Ox/trtl ; 

AKD 

CHARLES    1!'  E  S  L  E  Y,  'U.  A. 
Late  Student  of  Cbrift-Chwrcb,  Oxfird._ 


L  O  N  DOK: 
Printed  in  ii'.c  Yeai  MDCCL 


:xrv. 


J 


IOGRAPM  OP 


WESLEY'S  HYMN  BOOK  FOR  AMERICA. 

'1  he  hymnal  used  at  first  in  the  American  Methodist 
societies. 


I  believe  there  'is  no  Liturgy  in 
the  world  either  in  any  Ancient 
or  Modern  Language  which 
breathes  more  of  a  solid  Scrip- 
tural rational  Piety  than  the 
Common   Prayer  of  the  Church 

of  England.  And  tho'  the  main  work  of  it  was  compiled  considerably  more 
than  two  hundred  years  ago,  yet  is  the  Language  of  it  not  only  pure,  but  strong 
and  elegant  in  the  highest  degree. 

Little  alteration  is  made  in  the  following  Edition  of  it  (which  I  recommend  to 
our  Societies  in  America),  except  in  the  following  instances  : 

1.  Most  of  the  Holy-days  (so-called)  are  omitted,  as  at  present  answering  no 
\aluable  end. 


318  American  Methodism 

2.  The  Service  for  the  Lord's  Day,  the  Length  of  which  has  been  often  com- 
plained of,  is  considerably  shortened. 

3.  Some  Sentences  in  the  Offices  of  Baptism  and  for  the  Burial  of  the  Dead 
are  omitted ;  and 

4.  Many  Psalms  are  left  out,  and  many  parts  of  the  others,  as  being  highly 
improper  for  the  Mouths  of  a  Christian  Congregation. 

The  Articles  of  Religion  which  Wesley  offered  and  the 
Conference  approved  were  twenty-four  in  number,  being  ex- 
tracted from  the  famous  "Thirty-nine  Articles"  of  Anglican 
Protestantism.  The  omitted  articles  are  III,  VIII,  XIII,  XV, 
XVII,  XVIII,  XX,  XXI,  XXIII,  XXXV,  XXXVI,  XXXVII, 
and  parts  of  VI,  IX,  and  XIX.  Stevens  asserts  that  the  se- 
lection contains  the  essence  of  theological  orthodoxy,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  Article  XVII,  "On  Predestination  and 
Election,"  sometimes  called  "  The  Calvinistic  Article."  "  On 
the  Trinity,  the  Incarnation,  and  Atonement,  the  Sacred 
Canon,  Original  Sin,  Free-will,  Justification,  and  Good 
Works,  he  (Wesley)  retains  the  essence  and  very  nearly  the 
exact  language  of  the  Anglican  symbol." 

The  sections  which  Wesley  rejected  include  "The  Going 
Down  of  Christ  into  Hell"  (III),  the  recommendation  of  the 
"Apocryphal  Scriptures"  (VI),  the  eighth  article,  which 
recognizes  the  Nicene,  Athanasian,  and  Apostles'  Creeds, 
"The  Authority  of  the  Church"  (XX),  and  "The  Authority 
of  General  Councils."  It  is  noticeable  that  most  of  these 
were  remnants  of  Roman  Catholic  traditions  or  opinions  sur- 
viving in  the  creed  of  the  reformers.  It  is  noteworthy  that 
the  Methodist  Articles  of  Religion  include  none  of  the  dis- 
tinctively Wesleyan  doctrines— the  so-called  "  Arminianism," 
"Witness  of  the  Spirit,"  and  "Christian  Perfection." 

So  much  for  doctrine.  As  to  clerical  offices  and  orders, 
the  Discipline  placed  the  superintendents,  soon  to  be  called 
bishops,  at  the  head.     Then  follow  the  "assistants,"  who  are 


Clerical  Offices  and  Orders 


319 


ciders  and  deacons.  After  them  are  the  "  helpers,"  or  unor- 
dained  preachers.  The  duties  of  the  superintendent  were: 
to  ordain  superintendents,  elders,  and  deacons;  to  preside  in 
the  Conferences ; 
to  fix  the  ap- 
pointments of  the 
preachers;  and 
between  Confer- 
ences to  change, 
receive,  or  sus- 
pend preachers, 
on  occasion,  and 
to  receive  and 
decide  appeals. 
While  the  Con- 
ference elected 
men  to  orders,  he 
had  the  veto 
power.  The  su- 
perintendent was 
to  be  chosen  by  a 
majority  of  the 
Conference  and 
the   consent    and 


layini 


on 


of 


HCTOGHAPMED   FROM  THE  ORiGlf- 


HE   LIBRARY  OF  OREW   TmEOLOGiCAL  SEMINARY. 

)IST    PRAYER    BOOK. 


hands  of  another 

Superintendent.        This  copy  belonged  to  William  Walters,  "the  First  American  Native 

In     case  •  there  itinerant." 

were  no  superintendent,  the  elders,  or  any  three  of  them, 
should  ordain  the  candidate  selected  by  the  Conference. 
The  Conference  reserved  the  power  to  try  the  superin- 
tendent  and   depose   him  for   cause.     He   had  no   diocese, 


320  American   Methodism 

and  no  episcopal  revenue  except  the  preachers'  uniform 
stipend  of  $64. 

In  charge  of  the  preachers  of  each  district  was  a  superin- 
tendent's assistant,  one  of  the  newly  ordained  elders.  The 
unordained  men  under  him  were  his  "  helpers."  His  duties, 
exactly  set  down  in  the  first  description,  were  multifarious: 
"to  see  that  the  other  preachers  in  his  circuit  behave  well  and 
want  nothing;  to  renew  the  tickets  quarterly  and  regulate  the 
bands;  to  take  in  or  put  out  of  the  society  or  the  bands;  to 
appoint  all  the  stewards  and  leaders,  and  change  them  when 
he  sees  it  necessary;  to  keep  watch  nights  and  love  feasts; 
to  hold  quarterly  meetings,  and  therein  diligently  to  inquire 
both  into  the  temporal  and  spiritual  state  of  each  society;  to 
take  care  that  every  society  be  duly  supplied  with  books, 
particularly  with  a  Kempis,  Instructions  for  Children,  and 
the  Primitive  Physic,  which  ought  to  be  in  every  house ;  to 
take  exact  lists  of  his  societies,  and  bring  them  to  the  Con- 
ference;  to  send  an  account  of  his  circuit  every  half  year  to 
one  of  the  superintendents ;  to  meet  the  married  men  and 
women,  and  the  simrle  men  and  women  in  the  laro;e  societies 
once  a  quarter ;  to  overlook  the  accounts  of  all  the  stewards; 
to  take  a  regular  catalogue  of  his  societies  as  the}7  live  in 
house-row;  to  leave  his  successor  a  particular  account  of  the 
state  of  the  circuit ;  vigorously  but  calmly  to  enforce  the  rules 
concerning  needless  ornaments  and  drams ;  as  soon  as  there 
are  four  men  or  women  believers  in  any  place  to  put  them 
into  a  band ;  to  suffer  no  love  feast  to  last  above  an  hour  and 
a  half;  everywhere  to  recommend  decency  and  cleanliness; 
and  to  read  the  Rules  of  the  Society,  with  the  aid  of  his  help- 
ers, once  a  year  in  every  congregation,  and  once  a  quarter  in 
every  society." 

The   special   function  of   the  elder  was  to  administer  the 


Annual   Publication  of  the  Minutes  321 

sacraments  and  to  perforin  all  the  other  rites  prescribed  by 
the  liturgy.  It  was  not  until  later  that  the  elders  were  placed 
over  several  circuits,  and  intrusted  with  the  administrative 
work  of  the  presiding  eldership.  At  the  first  Conference 
about  one  fourth  of  the  preachers  were  elected  to  orders.  In 
time  it  became  customary  for  all  members  of  Conference  to 
be  ordained  successively  deacons  and  elders.  When  this 
came  in  the  old  distinction  of  "assistant"  and  "helper"  dis- 
appeared, and  the  terms  went  out  of  use. 

The  ordained  deacon  was  "to  baptize  in  the  absence  of  an 
elder,  to  assist  the  elder  in  the  administration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  to  marry,  bury  the  dead,  and  read  the  liturgy  to  the 
people,  as  prescribed,  except  what  relates  to  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Lord's  wSupper." 

The  helpers  were  all  preachers  other  than  the  superintend- 
ents and  their  assistants.  The  first  Discipline  enumerates 
their  duties:  "  i.  To  preach.  2.  To  meet  the  society  and  the 
bands  weekly.  3.  To  visit  the  sick.  4.  To  meet  the  leaders 
weekly  ; "  and  adds  :  ' '  Let  every  preacher  be  particularly  exact 
in  this  and  in  morning  preaching.  If  he  has  twenty  hearers, 
let  him  preach.  We  are  fully  determined  never  to  drop 
morning  preaching,  and  to  preach  at  5  A.  M.  wdierever  it  is 
practicable:"  The  line  between  the  ordained  men  and  the 
ordinary  preachers  was  strictly  drawn,  and  on  no  account 
were  the  helpers  to  officiate  at  the  Communion  service  or  to 
read  the  morning  and  evening  service  in  the  con gre gation 
except  by  the  written  authorization  of  the  bishop. 

Xo  person  was  to  be  employed  as  traveling  preacher  unless 
his  name  was  printed  in  the  Minutes  or  a  certificate  given 
by  the  superintendent  or  circuit  "assistant."  The  Minutes, 
some  of  which  had  hitherto  remained  in  manuscript,  were 
now  to  be  published  annually. 


322 


American  Methodism 


MINUTES 


OF    THE 


JMethodift  Conferences, 


A, 


In    1794    John     Die-kins    issued    the    Minutes    of    all    the 
American  Conferences,  up  to  and  including  that  year,  in  a 

...    -  —    -       -      neat  volume. 

The  arrange- 
ment for  the  sup- 
port     of      the 
preachers     was 
primitive   in   the 
extreme.       The 
Conference  fixed 
upon  $64  per  an- 
num as  the  uni- 
form salary  of  the 
traveling  preach- 
ers, with  an  equal 
allowance  for  the 
preacher's    wife, 
$16  for  each  child 
under    six   years 
of  age,  and  about 
$2  2  each  for  those 
between  six  and 
eleven.     The  al- 
lowances for  chil- 
dren   were     re- 
pealed two  years 
later.     The  min- 
isters of  the  new 
Church     forbade 
themselves  taking 
any  fee  or  present  for  services  at  baptisms,  marriages,  and 
funerals.     Some  years  later  wedding  fees  were  authorized, 


ANNUALLY    HELD    IN 

M      E     R      I      C 

From  1773  t0  J794>  inclufive. 


I 


1  <«.}.>•>.>  >>' 


PHILADELPHIA: 


miXTID  BT  KENRT  TUCKNIiS,    NO.  4J,  CBOKCH-ALLtV 

AND  SOLD  B»   J0B1I  DtCKlNS,    NO.  44,    NORTH  SECCNB 
STjUIT,    NEAR    ARCH    STREET. 

■U  BCC  XCV. 

FROM   THE    ORIGINAL    OWNEO    BY    JAMES    R      JOY. 

TITLE-PAGE  OK  THE  FIRST  COLLECTED  EDITION  OF 
THE  GENERAL  MINUTES. 


Sacraments  and  Ordinances  of  the  Church  323 

but  the  receipts  must  be  reported  to  the  steward  and  credited 
to    the   preacher's   salary,    furthermore,    it"    that   sum   were 

already  made  up,  the  fee  or  ••present"  must  be  taken  to 
Conference  and  given  to  the  preachers  whose  salaries  were 
in  arrears.  It  was  sixteen  years  before  the  preacher  was 
allowed  to  own  the  fees  that  accrued  to  him. 

A  Preachers'  Fund  was  instituted  for  the  benefit  of  super- 
annuates and  widows  and  orphans  of  preachers.  Members 
paid  into  it  $2. 67  on  their  admission  to  Conference  and  $2 
annual  dues.  "Every  worn-out  preacher,"  say  the  rules, 
"shall  receive,  if  he  wants  it,  $64  a  year;  every  widow,  if 
she  wants  it,  $53.33  -.  every  child  shall  receive  once  for  all,  if 
he  wants  it,  $53.33."  We  are  told  that  even  this  pittance 
relieved  the  distress  of  many,  and  the  fund  was  generally 
subscribed.  The  Preachers'  Fund  was  merged  in  the  Char- 
tered Fund  in  1797,  and  ultimately  the  plan  of  annual  sub- 
scriptions was  dropped. 

Collections  were  authorized  in  "every  principal  congrega- 
tion" for  a  "  general  fund  for  carrying  on  the  whole  work  of 
God."  This  was  for  the  support  of  preachers  in  pioneering 
new  fields. 

Communicants  were  recommended  to  receive  the  Eucharist 
kneeling,  though  other  postures  were  permitted.  Only  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  and  persons  with  tickets  from  the  preacher 
might  come  to  the  Lord's  table.  An  option  of  sprinkling  or 
immersion  was  afforded  to  candidates  for  baptism,  and  rebap- 
tism  was  allowed  to  those  adults  who  doubted  the  efficacy  of 
their  baptism  in  infancy.  Persistent  neglect  of  class  meet- 
ings must  be  punished  by  exclusion  from  the  Church.  The 
same  penalty  was  enacted  for  members  marrying  "unawak- 
ened  persons."  This  was  modified  in  1804  to  "putting  back 
on  trial  for  six  months,"  and  later  was  removed  altogether. 


324  American   Methodism 

Slavery  was  already  beginning  to  be  a  disturbing  factor  in 
American  Methodism.  It  had  several  times  been  the  subject 
of  discussion  by  the  preachers.  That  the  Christinas  Confer- 
ence should  make  a  declaration  on  the  subject  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at :  "  We  view  it  as  contrary  to  the  golden  law  of 
God,  on  which  hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets,  and  the 
inalienable  rights  of  mankind,  as  well  as  every  principle  of 
the  Revolution,  to  hold  in  the  deepest  debasement,  in  a  more 
abject  slavery  than  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in  any  part  of  the 
world  except  America,  so  many  souls  that  are  all  capable  of 
the  image  of  God.  We  therefore  think  it  our  most  bounden 
duty  to  take  immediately  some  effectual  method  to  extirpate 
this  abomination  from  among  us." 

During  the  entire  session  of  the  Christmas  Conference  the 
utmost  regard  was  paid  to  the  wishes  of  Wesley.  While  all 
possible  method  and  order  were  employed  in  organizing  a 
new  Church,  there  was  a  full  recognition  of  the  spiritual  au- 
thority of  the  just  founder.  One  of  the  declarations  of  the 
body  was  that  "during  the  life  of  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley  we  ac- 
knowledge ourselves  his  sons  in  the  Gospel,  ready  in  mat- 
ters belonging  to  Church  government  to  obey  his  commands. 
And  we  do  engage  after  his  death  to  do  everything  that  we 
judge  consistent  with  the  cause  of  religion  in  America,  and 
the  political  interests  of  these  States,  to  preserve  and  promote 
our  union  with  the  Methodists  of  Europe." 

The  historical  Christmas  Conference  was  the  first  General 
Conference ;  not  a  delegated  body,  but  the  whole  ministry  in 
session.  It  made  no  provision  for  a  successor,  and  for  some 
years  all  legislation  was  accomplished  by  the  superintendent 
presenting  each  new  measure  to  the  several  Annual  Confer- 
ences, a  majority  of  all  being  required  to  enact.  There  was 
a  General  Conference  in    1792,   of  which  no   Minutes  were 


General,  Annual,  and  Quarterly  Conferences  325 

published.  The  third  was  in  1796,  and  since  that  year  the 
sessions  have  been  quadrennial.  The  General  Conference  of 
1808  prescribed  a  new  method  of  constituting  the  body,  and 
in  1 8 12  the  first  delegated  General  Conference  met  in  New 
York  city. 

The  Annual  Conferences  during  the  earlier  years  were 
considered  "  local  or  sectional  meetings  of  the  one  undivided 
ministry,  held  in  different  localities,  for  the  local  convenience 
of  its  members.*'  For  a  few  years  preceding  1784  two  Con- 
ferences were  held  each  year;  three  were  appointed  for  1785, 
six  for  1788,  eleven  for  1789,  and  in  1790  there  were,  besides 
the  Eastern  Conferences,  two  beyond  the  Alleghanies.  The 
General  Conference  was  at  this  time  a  collective  assembly  of 
the  Annual  Conferences. 

The  Annual  Conference  sessions  were  largely  attended, 
interested  laymen  coming  from  long  distances  to  look  on. 
They  were  deeply  religious  gatherings,  with  frequent  ser- 
mons and  prayers  in  the  intervals  of  business.  The  business 
was  conducted  in  the  familiar  Wesleyan  fashion  of  questions 
and  answers.  There  were  no  presiding  elders,  and  the  bishop 
appointed  the  preachers  without  the  advice  of  a  cabinet. 

Once  in  three  months  the  traveling  preachers,  local  preach- 
ers, exhorters,  leaders,  stewards,  and,  later,  the  trustees  and 
Sunday  school  superintendents  of  the  circuit  met  in  Quar- 
terly Conference  to  consider  the  interests  of  the  circuit.  Its 
temporal  business  was  of  less  magnitude  than  the  spiritual, 
for  these  were  occasions  for  multitudinous  jratherin^s  of 
Methodist  folk,  singly  and  by  families,  for  the  two  days  of 
prayer,  song,  and  exhortation.  The  humble  chapels  could 
not  contain  these  throngs,  and  often  the  sermons  were 
preached  out  of  doors. 


CHAPTER   XXXIII 
The  Regimen  of  the  Preachers 

Twelve  Rules  for  a  Helper.— Testing  the  Candidate. — Preaching 
Required  by  the  Times.— Pastoral  Visiting.— Hints  on  Homi- 
letics.— The  Class  Meeting. 


TO  no  part  of  the  Methodist  system,  either  as  originally 
prepared  in  England  by  Wesley  or  as  modified  in  the 
United  States,  was  greater  attention  given  than  to 
the  quality  and  regimen  of  the  preachers.  The  view  seems 
to  have  been  that  equal  care  must  be  taken  with  the  clergy 
whether  the  candidate  came  from  another  Church  or  began 
his  ministry  among  the  Methodists  themselves.  The  "  Rules 
of  a  Helper,"  prescribed  in  the  first  Discipline,  were  prac- 
tically those  which  Wesley  had  drawn  up  for  the  guidance  of 
the  English  preachers : 

i.  Be  diligent.  Never  be  unemployed.  Never  be  triflingly  employed. 
Never  while  away  time ;  neither  spend  any  more  time  at  any  place  than  is 
strictly  necessary.  2.  Be  serious.  Let  your  motto  be  "Holiness  to  the  Lord." 
Avoid  all  lightness,  jesting,  and  foolish  talking.  3.  Converse  sparingly  and 
cautiously  with  women,  particularly  young  women.  4.  Take  no  step  toward 
marriage  without  first  consulting  with  your  brethren.  5.  Believe  evil  of  no 
one;  unless  you  see  it  clone,  take  heed  how  you  credit  it.  Put  the  best  con- 
struction on  everything.     You  know  the  judge  is  always  supposed  to  be  on  the 

326 


Ameliorations  in  American  Practice  327 

prisoner's  side.  6.  Speak  evil  of  no  one,  else  your  word  especially  would  eat 
as  doth  a  canker.  Keep  your  thoughts  within  your  breast  till  you  come  to  the 
person  concerned.  7.  Tell  everyone  who  is  under  your  care  what  you  think 
wrong  in  his  conduct  and  tempers,  and  that  plainly,  as  soon  as  may  be;  else  it 
will  fester  in  your  heart.  .Make  all  haste  to  cast  the  fire  out  of  your  bosom. 
8.  Do  not  affect  the  gentleman.  You  have  no  more  to  do  with  this  character 
than  with  that  ol  a  dancing  master.  A  preacher  of  the  Gospel  is  the  servant 
of  all.  9.  Be  ashamed  of  nothing  but  sin  ;  not  of  fetching  wood  (if  time  permit) 
or  drawing  water;  not  of  cleaning  your  own  shoes  or  your  neighbor's.  10.  Be 
punctual.  Do  everything  exactly  at  the  time.  And  do  not  mend  our  rules, 
but  keep  them  ;  not  for  wrath,  but  for  conscience'  sake.  1  1.  You  have  nothing 
to  do  but  to  save  souls.  Therefore  spend  and  be  spent  in  this  work.  And  go 
always  not  only  to  those  that  want  you.  but  to  those  that  want  you  most. 
Observe:  it  is  not  your  business  to  preach  so  many  times,  or  to  take  care  of  this 
or  that  society  ;  but  to  save  as  many  souls  as  you  can  ;  to  bring  as  many  sinners 
as  you  possibly  can  to  repentance,  and  with  all  your  power  to  build  up  in  that 
holiness  without  which  they  cannot  see  the  Lord.  And  remember!  A  Metho- 
dist preacher  is  to  mind  every  point,  great  and  small,  in  the  Methodist  Disci- 
pline. Therefore  you  will  need  all  the  sense  you  have,  and  to  have  all  your  wits 
about  you.  12.  Act  in  all  things  not  according  to  your  own  will,  but  as  a  son 
in  the  Gospel.  As  such  it  is  your  part  to  employ  your  time  in  the  manner 
which  we  direct;  partly  in  preaching  and  visiting  from  house  to  house,  partly 
in  reading,  meditation,  and  prayer.  Above  all,  if  you  labor  with  us  in  our  Lord's 
vineyard,  it  is  needful  that  you  should  do  that  part  of  the  work  which  we  advise 
at  those  times  and  places  which  we  judge  most  for  his  glory. 

These  twelve  rules,  with  the  exception  of  insignificant 
verbal  changes,  are  the  same  as  the  original  rules  for  the  ob- 
servance of  the  English  Wesleyans.  In  a  short  time  they 
underwent  slight  modifications  in  the  American  Discipline. 
In  the  edition  of  1786  the  "  dancing  master"  took  his  depar- 
ture from  rule  8,  and  the  "cleaning  shoes"  from  rule  9.  In 
1789  the  same  rule  lost  its  recommendations  touching  the 
"fetching  wood"  and  "drawing  water."  The  American 
practice  also  ameliorated  Wesley's  requirement  concerning 
early  morning  preaching.  In  winter  the  service  might  be 
at  6  a.  m.  instead  of  5,  and  in  1789  the  preacher  is  "to 
preach  in  the  morning  where  he  can  get  hearers."  In  1804 
the  requirement  softens  to  a  "recommendation." 

The   68th   question    was:    "How  shall   we  try  those  who 


328  American  Methodism 

think  they  are  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  preach?"  and 
the  answer  was  Wesley's : 

Inquire,  i.  Do  they  know  God  as  a  pardoning  God  ?  Have  they  the  love  of 
God  abiding  in  them  ?  Uo  they  desire  and  seek  nothing  but  God?  And  are 
they  holy  in  all  manner  of  conversation.  2.  Have  they  gifts  (as  well  as  grace) 
for  the  work?  Have  they  (in  some  tolerable  degree)  a  clear,  sound  under- 
standing? Have  they  a  right  judgment  in  the  things  of  God  ?  Have  they  a 
just  conception  of  salvation  by  faith  ?  And  has  God  given  them  any  degree  of 
utterance?  Do  they  speak  justly,  readily,  clearly  ?  3.  Have  they  fruit?  Are 
any  truly  convinced  of  sin  and  converted  to  God  by  their  preaching  ?  As  long 
as  these  three  marks  concur  in  anyone  we  believe  he  is  called  of  God  to  preach. 
These  we  receive  as  sufficient  proof  that  he  is  "  moved  thereto  by  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

In  receiving  a  new  helper  the  Conference  was  to  ask  the 

following'  prescribed  questions,  after  fasting  and  prayer : 

Have  you  faith  in  Christ  ?  Are  you  going  on  to  perfection  ?  Do  you  expect 
to  be  perfected  in  love  in  this  life?  Are  you  groaning  after  it?  Are  you  re- 
solved to  devote  yourself  wholly  to  God  and  to  his  work?  Do  you  know  the 
Methodist  Plan?  Do  you  know  the  Rules  of  the  Society?  Of  the  Bands?  Do 
you  keep  them  ?  Do  you  take  no  Drams  ?  Do  you  constantly  attend  the  Sacra- 
ment? Have  you  read  the  Minutes  of  the  Conference  ?  Are  you  willing  to 
conform  to  them  ?  Have  you  considered  the  Rules  of  a  Helper;  especially  the 
first,  tenth,  twelfth?  Will  you  keep  them  for  conscience'  sake?  Are  you  de- 
termined to  employ  all  your  time  in  the  work  of  God  ?  Will  you  preach  every 
morning  at  five  o'clock  wherever  you  can  have  twenty  hearers?  Will  you  en- 
deavor not  to  speak  too  long  or  too  loud  ?  Will  you  diligently  instruct  the 
children  in  every  place  ?  Will  you  visit  from  house  to  house?  Will  you  recom- 
mend fasting  both  by  precept  and  example? 

On  assenting  to  these  questions  the  candidate  was  to  be 
taken  on  trial  for  two  years,  and  after  this  probation  he  might, 
on  recommendation  of  the  assistant  and  further  examination 
by  the  Conference,  be  received  into  full  connection. 

Our  first  Discipline  has  many  other  specific  admonitions 
for  the  preachers,  mostly  copied  from  the  English  Minutes. 
"We  are  raised  up,"  they  said,  "to  reform  the  continent 
and  to  spread  scriptural  holiness  over  these  lands."  In  pur- 
suance of  their  call  "to  save  that  which  is  lost,"  the  preachers 
are  to  go  out  in  God's  name  into  the  most  public  places  and 


Remedies  for  Prevalent  Ills  329 

call  all  to  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel.  "  But  what  avails 
public  preaching  alone,"  they  continue,  "though  we  could 
preach  like  angels?  We  must,  yea,  every  traveling  preacher 
must,  instruct  them  from  house  to  house."  And,  "  Let  every 
preacher,  having  a  catalogue  of  those  in  each  society,  go  to 
each  house  and  deal  gently  with  them,  that  the  report  of  it 
may  move  others  to  desire  your  coming.  Do  this  in  earnest, 
and  you  will  soon  find  what  a  work  you  take  in  hand  in  un- 
dertaking to  be  a  traveling  preacher." 

To  remedy  the  prevalent  ills  of  "Sabbath  breaking,  evil 
speaking,  unprofitable  conversation,  lightness,  expensiveness 
or  gayety  of  apparel,  and  contracting  debts  without  due  care 
to  discharge  them,"  the  following  suggestions  were  made:- 

i.  Let  us  preach  expressly  on  each  of  these  heads.  2.  Read  in  every  society 
the  Sermon  on  Evil  Speaking.  3.  Let  the  leaders  closely  examine  and  exhort 
every  person  to  put  away  the  accursed  thing.  4.  Let  the  preacher  warn  every 
society  that  none  who  is  guilty  herein  can  remain  with  us.  5.  Extirpate  smug- 
gling, buying,  or  selling  uncustomed  goods,  out  of  every  society.  Let  none 
remain  with  us  who  will  not  totally  abstain  from  every  kind  and  degree  of  it. 
6.  Extirpate  bribery,  receiving  anything,  directly  or  indirectly,  for  voting  in  any 
election.  Show  no  respect  of  persons  herein,  but  expel  all  that  touch  the  ac- 
cursed thing. 

To  employ  their  time  the  preachers  were  advised : 

1.  As  often  as  possible  to  rise  at  four.  2.  From  four  to  five  in  the  morning, 
and  from  five  to  six  in  the  evening,  to  meditate,  pray,  and  read,  partly  the  Scrip- 
tures with  Mr.  Wesley's  Notes,  partly  the  closelv  practical  parts  of  what  he  has 
published.  3.  From  six  in  the  morning  till  twelve  (allowing  an  hour  for  break- 
fast) to  read  in  order,  with  much  prayer,  the  Christian  Library  and  other  pious 
books. 

To  Question  50,  "Why  is  it  that  the  people  under  our  care 
are  no  better?"  It  was  answered,  "  The  chief  is,  because  we 
are  not  more  knowing  and  more  holy." 

The  answer  to  Question  51,  "But  why  are  we  not  more 

knowing?"  is  voluminous: 

Because  we  are  idle.  .  .  .  Which  of  you  spends  as  many  hours  a  day  in 
God's  work  as  you  did  formerly  in  man's  work?      We  talk,  or  read  history  or 


330  American  Methodism 

what  comes  next  to  hand.  We  must,  absolutely  must,  cure  this  evil,  or  betray 
the  cause  of  God. 

But  how  ?  i.  Read  the  most  useful  books,  and  that  regularly  and  constandy. 
Steadily  spend  all  the  morning  in  this  employ,  or,  at  least,  five  hours  in  four- 
and-twenty.  .  .  . 

"  But  I  have  no  taste  for  reading."  Contract  a  taste  for  it  by  use,  or  return 
to  your  trade. 

"  But  I  have  no  books."  We  desire  the  assistants  will  take  care  that  all  the 
large  societies  provide  Mr.  Wesley's  works  for  the  use  of  the  preachers. 

2.  In  the  afternoon  follow  Mr.  Baxter's  plan.  Then  you  will  have  no  time 
to  spare:  you  will  have  work  enough  for  all  your  time.  Then,  likewise,  no 
preacher  will  stay  with  us  who  is  as  salt  that  has  lost  its  savor.  For  to  such 
this  employment  would  be  mere  drudgery.  And  in  order  to  it  you  will  have 
need  of  all  the  knowledge  you  can  procure. 

The  sum  is,  Go  into  every  house  in  course,  and  teach  everyone  therein, 
young  and  old,  if  they  belong  to  us,  to  be  Christians  inwardly  and  outwardly. 
Make  every  particular  plain  to  their  understanding ;  fix  it  in  their  memory ; 
write  it  on  their  heart.  In  order  to  this,  there  must  be  "line  upon  line,  precept 
upon  precept."  What  patience,  what  love,  what  knowledge  is  requisite  for 
this! 

We  must  needs  do  this,  were  it  only  to  avoid  idleness.  Do  we  not  loiter 
away  many  hours  in  every  week?  Each  try  himself :  no  idleness  is  consistent 
with  growth  in  grace.  Nay,  without  exactness  in  redeeming  time,  you  cannot 
retain  the  grace  you  have  received  in  jusiification. 

But  what  shall  we  do  for  the  rising  generation  ?  Who  will  labor  for  them  ? 
Let  him  who  is  zealous  for  God  and  the  souls  of  men  begin  now. 

i.  Where  there  are  ten  children  whose  parents  are  in  society,  meet  them  at 
least  an  hour  every  week. 

2.  Talk  with  them  every  time  you  see  any  at  home. 

3.  Pray  in  earnest  for  them. 

4.  Diligently  instruct  and  vehemently  exhort  all  parents  at  their  own  houses. 

5.  Preach  expressly  on  education.  "  But  I  have  no  gift  for  this."  Gift  or  no 
gift,  you  are  to  do  it ;  else  you  are  not  called  to  be  a  Methodist  preacher.  Do 
it  as  you  can,  till  you  can  do  it  as  you  would.  Pray  earnestly  for  the  gift,  and 
use  the  means  for  it. 

"  Question  52.  Why  are  not  we  more  holy?  Why  do  not 
we  live  in  eternity;  walk  with  God  all  the  day  long?  Win- 
are  we  not  all  devoted  to  God ;  breathing  the  whole  spirit  of 
missionaries?" 

Answer:  Chiefly  because  we  are  enthusiasts;  looking  for  the  end  without 
using  the  means.  To  touch  onlv  upon  two  or  three  instances :  Who  of  you 
rises  at  four,  or  even  at  five,  when  he  does  not  preach?     Do  you  recommend  to 


Searching  Questions  and  Plain  Advice  331 

all  our  societies  the  five  o'clock  hour  for  private  prayer?  Do  you  observe  it,  or 
any  other  fixed  time?  Do  you  not  find  by  experience  that  any  time  is  no  time? 
Do  you  know  the  obligation  and  the  benefits  of  fasting?  How  often  do  you 
practice  it  ?  The  neglect  of  this  alone  is  sufficient  to  account  for  our  feebleness 
and  fain tness  of  spirit.  We  are  continually  grieving  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  by 
the  habitual  neglect  of  a  plain  duty  !     Let  us  amend  from  this  hour. 

Following  some  plain  advice  about  diet  and  health  came 
Question  54,  "What  is  the  best  general  method  of  preaching5" 

••Answer:  1.  To  convince.  2.  To  offer  Christ.  3.  To  build 
up;  and  to  do  this  in  some  measure  in  every  sermon." 

The  answer  to  one  question,  55,  enumerated  additional 
"smaller  advices"  in  homiletics: 

1.  Be  sure  never  to  disappoint  a  congregation,  unless  in  case  of  life  or  death. 
2.  Begin  precisely  at  the  time  appointed.  3.  Let  your  whole  deportment  before 
the  congregation  be  serious,  weighty,  and  solemn.  4.  Always  suit  your  sub- 
jects to  your  audience.  5.  Choose  the  plainest  texts  you  can.  6.  Take  care 
not  to  ramble  ;  but  keep  to  your  text,  and  make  out  what  you  take  in  hand. 
7.  Take  care  of  anything  awkward  or  affected,  either  in  your  gesture,  phrase, 
or  pronunciation.  8.  Sing  no  hymns  of  your  own  composing.  9.  Print  nothing 
without  the  approbation  of  one  or  other  of  the  superintendents.  10.  Do  not 
usually  pray  extempore  above  eight  or  ten  minutes  (at  most)  without  intermis- 
sion. 11.  Frequently  read  and  enlarge  upon  a  portion  of  the  Notes;  and  let 
young  preachers  often  exhort  without  taking  a  text.  12  Always  kneel  during 
public  prayer.  13.  Everywhere  avail  yourself  of  the  great  festivals  by  preaching 
on  the  occasion.  14.  Beware  of  clowni^hness.  Be  courteous  to  all.  15.  Be 
merciful  to  your  beast.  Not  only  ride  moderately,  but  see  with  your  own  eyes 
that  your  horse  be  rubbed  and  fed. 

The  preachers  were  admonished  to  "  strongly  and  closely 
insist  upon  inward  and  outward  holiness."  A  special  set  of 
rules  was  laid  down  "  to  guard  against  formality  in  singing." 
The  "instituted  and  prudential  means  of  grace"  were  fully 
explained  and  earnestly  recommended,  and  the  preachers 
were  exhorted  to  private  prayer,  serious  conversation,  study 
of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures,  and  strict  self-denial. 

Each  local  Methodist  society  of  members  and  probationers 
was  divided  into  classes  of  twelve  or  more  each,  which  met 
weekly  for  religious  culture,  under  proper  leaders  who  were 


332  American  Methodism 

directly  amenable  to  the  preacher.  Wherever  the  society 
owned  a  chapel  or  other  property  the  title  was  vested  in  a 
board  of  trustees.  The  stewards  administered  the  other 
finances.  In  most  societies  would  be  one  or  more  earnest 
laymen  who,  as  licensed  exhorters  or  local  preachers,  were 
nursing  their  talents  for  the  regular  work  of  the  itinerancy. 
The  societies  in  greater  or  less  numbers  were  grouped  in 
circuits,  over  which  were  the  "  assistant" — an  ordained  elder 
competent  to  administer  the  sacrament — and  two  or  three 
unordained  traveling  preachers  or  "helpers."  The  local 
preachers  were  useful  in  serving  preaching  stations,  and  the 
class  leaders  were  the  faithful  subpastors  of  the  flock  in  the 
absence  of  a  settled  pastorate.  The  presiding  elder's  district, 
a  group  of  neighboring  circuits  under  special  supervision, 
was  not  yet  introduced. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 


A  Continental  Diocese 


The  Field.— Traveling  in  1790.— Asbury  in  the  Carolina*.— The 
First  Annual  Conference  ofthe  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
—  In  Coke's  Absence.— Over  the  Virginia  Mountains. 

THE  two  Methodist  bishops  took  the  continent  for  their 
diocese.  From,  and  including,  the  British  provinces 
on  the  north  to  the  Spanish  possessions  on  the  south, 
and  through  the  gateways  of  the  mountains  to  the  English 
settlements  upon  the  western  waters,  their  authority  ex- 
tended wherever  the  Methodist  pi-eachers  might  penetrate. 
Over  this  vast  and  rapidly  widening  territory  they  passed 
continually  in  their  tours  of  inspection,  attending  the  Annual 
Conferences,  stationing  the  preachers,  collecting  funds  for 
the  college,  preaching  at  quarterly  meetings,  and  planning 
for  the  development  of  the  work.  The  brunt  of  the  business 
fell  upon  Asbury,  for  Coke,  engaged  with  the  affairs  of  the 
British  Conference  and  with  his  own  project  of  world-wide 
missions,  though  he  visited  this  country  five  times  within 
eight  years,  spent  in  the  aggregate  but  eighteen  months  of 
this  period  within  the  boundaries  of  the  Church  over  whose 
organization  he  had  presided. 

To  travel  this  enormous  circuit  was  a  task   from  which  a 

333 


334  American  Methodism 

sturdier  man  than  Asbury  might  have  shrunk.  Three  hun- 
dred miles  then  was  farther  than  three  thousand  miles  now. 
"  It  was  no  uncommon  thing,"  says  MacMaster,  "  for  one  who 
went  on  business  or  on  pleasure  from  Charleston  to  Boston 
or  New  York,  if  he  were  a  prudent  or  cautious  man,  to  con- 
sult the  almanac  before  setting  out,  to  make  his  will,  to  give 
a  dinner  to  his  friends  at  the  tavern,  and  there  bid  them  a 
formal  good-bye." 

The  large  rivers  were  all  unbridged,  and  the  best  ferry- 
boats were  but  rude  scows,  almost  unmanageable  in  rough 
weather.  The  highways  were  poorly  graded  and  ill  kept, 
even  in  the  older  sections,  while  the  new  settlements  could 
be  reached  only  by  rude  trails  over  rugged  mountains  and 
through  forests  infested  by  wild  beasts  and  savage  men. 
How  severe  were  the  conditions  of  travel  even  along  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  routes  may  be  learned  by  the  perusal  of 
Joseph  Pilmoor's  Journal. 

At  the  beginning  of  1785,  when  Asbury  set  out  upon  his 
first  episcopal  round  of  the  Conferences,  there  were  18,000 
Methodists  in  society,  representing  a  constituency  of  some 
200,000.  Besides  the  104  traveling  preachers  there  were 
several  times  that  number  of  local  preachers  and  exhorters 
actively  employed.  Lednum,  the  antiquarian,  enumerates 
over  sixty  chapels  which  had  been  built  previous  to  this  time, 
including  one  in  New  York,  four  in  New  Jersey,  five  in 
Pennsylvania,  nine  in  Delaware,  a  score  in  Maryland,  with 
nearly  as  many  in  Virginia,  and  nine  in  North  Carolina. 

On  the  evening  of  the  adjournment  of  the  Christmas  Con- 
ference, January  3,  1785,  Francis  Asbury,  now  superintend- 
ent of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  preached,  in  Balti- 
more, his  first  sermon  since  his  ordination  and  consecration. 
His  text  was  from  Eph.  iii,  8,  "Unto  me,  who  am  less  than 


I  MARYLAND 


SKETCHED    BY    G.    W.    BONTE    FROM    THE    ITINE 


niSHOP  asbury's    first  episcopal  tour,  1785. 

Lea\in^  Baltimore  at  the  close  of  the  Christmas  Conference,  he  reached  Fairfax,  Va., 
January  4,  17S5  ;  crossed  the  State  and  reached  North  Carolina  January  20;  was  at 
Salisbury,  N.  C,  February  10;  Charleston,  S.  C,  February  24  ;  Wilmington,  N.  C, 
March  ig ;  Green  Hdl's  (Conference),  April  10;  Yorktown,  Va  ,  May  12;  Annapolis, 
May  14;  Mount  Vernon,  May  26;  P.altimore.  June  1  (Conference). 


336 


American  Methodism 


the  least  of  all  saints,  is  this  grace  given,  that  I  should  preach 
among  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ."  The 
next  day  he  rode  forty  miles,  to  Fairfax,  Va.,  and  thence 
pressed  southward  for  weeks  at  a  pace  which  broke  down  his 
horse.  He  found  the  Virginians  ripe  for  the  changes  which 
the  General  Conference  had  decreed,  and  they  welcomed  the 
news  that  henceforth  the  Methodist  elders  were  qualified  to 

administer  the  sacraments. 
He  wore  the  cassock  and 
bands  of  an  Anglican  clergy- 
man and  used  the  prayer 
book  as  revised  by  Wesley ; 
usages  which  especially  en- 
deared him  to  those  who 
had  belonged  to  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  but  which 
grieved  men  like  Jesse  Lee, 
as  "an  innovation  upon  that 
plainness  and  simplicity 
which  had  always  been 
characteristic  of  the  Metho- 
dists of  America." 
In  company  with  Lee  and  another  young  preacher,  Henry 
Willis,  Asbury  pushed  on  to  Charleston,  S.  C,  where  they 
found  the  inhabitants  "vain  and  wicked  to  a  proverb." 
Their  congregations  here  were  large,  but  inclined  to  turbu- 
lence,  for  even  the  ministers  had  warned  the  people  against 
the  newcomers.  Yet  some  persons,  including  their  kind 
host,  Mr.  Wells,  were  left  under  gracious  impressions.  After 
two  weeks'  sojourn,  during  which  he  had  preached  almost 
daily,  Asbury  departed  for  North  Carolina,  leaving  Willis  to 
found  the  church  in  Charleston.      "  I  have  been  out  for  six 


OLIVER    NUGENT. 


COMMUNION    TABLE    FROM  OLD  REHO 
BOTH    CHURCH,    UNION,    VA. 


!  ;.:^r-i-..    ^.:;iic-~ti5re 


I      - 
- 

- 


' 


»_      -  -=;  -i. 


■ 
I 


338 


American   Methodism 


On    their   trip   through  Virginia   they  dined  with    General 

Washington  at  Mount  Vernon,  before  going  to  Baltimore, 
where  Coke  said  farewell  to  the  preachers  in  Conference,  and 
sailed  for  home  in  June,  1785. 

For  nearly  two  years — June,  1785,  to  March,  1787 — theentire 
supervision  of  the  work  rested  on  Asbury.  He  was  constantly 
in  motion,   passing  from   New  York  to  Charleston,  with  in- 


fSflii 

1  ,-^tt^                                                      &z 

Jk^n^^^I^^^V"     ^'t'r&iist 

^pH^ 

HSraSlllisi 

?*  ;*' 

^^^1^^^ 

MWKgwSea^l^'^afe'-^ii^^ 

f  ^ff^    \  ^*%| 

DWELLING    AND    TOMB   OF    HENRY   WILLIS. 
The  Baltimore  Conference  met  in  this  house  in  1801. 

finite  disregard  of  toil  and  fatigue.  His  Journals  give  the 
most  modest  records  of  his  discomforts  and  mishaps.  It  is 
only  at  signs  of  religious  prosperity  that  the  words  kindle. 
He  sleeps  in  tavern  lofts,  listening  to  the  wind  tugging  at 
the  shingles-,  his  books  are  wet  in  fording  streams;  the 
wretched  roads  drive  him  from  his  carriage  to  the  saddle, 
and  the  deep  rivers  endanger  the  lives  of  horse  and  rider. 
These  are  a  few  of  the  incidents  of  one  month's  travels;  his 


Harry  Hosier's   Preaching 


339 


health  is  delicate,  the  important  thing  is  that  his  "soul  has 
peace."  In  September,  1785,  the  bishop  was  in  New  York, 
reading  prayers  from  the  Sunday  Service  in  John  Street. 
By  the  new  year,  1786,  he  was  at  the  far  end  of  his  parish, 
among  the  pioneer 
circuits  of  South  Caro- 
lina. With  his  body 
heavy  and  afflicted 
with  pain  he  rode 
twenty  miles  a  day 
for  many  days.  After 
the  Xorth  Carolina 
Conference  session  in 
February  he  retraced 
his  steps  northward, 
holding  the  Confer- 
ences in  Virginia  and 
Baltimore,  and  reach- 
insr  Xew  York  the  last 
of  August,  spent  with 
fatigue.  With  him 
came  Harry  Hosier, 
his  colored  servant, 
whose  preaching  at- 
tracted more  attention  in  the  newspapers  than  that  of  the 
bishop  himself.  Indeed  the  Xew  York  Packet's  notice  of 
"this  very  singular  black  man"  is  said  to  be  the  earliest 
mention  of  Xew  York  Methodism  in  the  city  press. 

In  the  following  March,  1787.  Coke  having  arrived  in 
Charleston,  S.  C,  the  two  bishops  held  Conference  there, 
and  thence  made  a  forced  march  of  three  hundred  miles  be- 
tween Sabbaths  into  Xorth  Carolina,  attending  two  quarterly 


AFTER   T     C-   RUCKLE  b   DRa* 


1   ORIGINAL    PORTRAIT. 


MRS.  ANN  HOLL1XGSWORTH  WILLIS. 
Reproduced  from  Roberts's  Centenary  Pictorial  Album. 


340 


American  Methodism 


meetings  on  the  way.  "  O  may  the  Lord  seal  and  water  his 
own  word,"  was  Asbury's  prayer,  "that  all  this  toil  of  man 
and  beast  be  not  in  vain."  Signs  were  multiplying  that  it 
was  not  in  vain;   for  at  one  quarterly  meeting  they  "met 


1HE    HOUSE    OF    KEV.    GREEN    HILL. 

Here  was  held,  April  20,  1785,  the  first  Annual  Conference  session  of  the  newly  organized  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church  in  America.  At  this  Conference  were  present  four  distinguished  pio- 
neers of  Methodism,  Kishops  Coke  and  Asbury,  and  Revs.  John  King  and  Green  Hill.  The 
two  la^t  named  were  brothers-in-law,  and  the  old  house  has  been  in  the  possession  of  their 
kindred  almost  continuously  for  more  than  a  hundred  years. 

with  a  multitude  of  people  who  were  desperately  wicked — 
but  God  hath  wrought  among  them  !  " 

After  the  Conferences  in  Virginia  and  Baltimore,  the  latter 
the  scene  of  the  struggle  in  which  the  preachers  successfully 
asserted  their  authority  against  Coke  and  Wesley,  the  bishops 
visited  New  York,  where  Asbury  remained  for  several  weeks, 
making  excursions  into  Long  Island,  preaching  in  the  alms- 
house, visiting  the  families  of  the  members,  or  the  sick,  and 
making  himself  generally  useful. 


To  Hold  Conference  at  Holstein  341 

From  May,  1787,  until  February,  1789,  Asbury  was  again 
alone,  and  in  1788  his  travels  took  a  wider  range.  In  March 
of  the  latter  year  his  round  of  episcopal  visitation  began  at 
Charleston  with  the  second  South  Carolina  Conference,  where 
he  had  "  a  very  free  and  open  time,''  notwithstanding  that 
on  one  occasion  a  riotous  fellow  set  the  congregation  in  a 
panic,  and  again  a  stone  was  hurled  through  the  window, 
narrowly  missing  the  preacher.  The  next  stage  took  the 
bishop  into  Georgia,  "  where  I  much  wanted  to  be,''  he  says. 
Ten  devoted  preachers  were  present  at  the  first  Conference 
session  of  this  State,  held  in  Wilkes  (now  Elbert)  County, 
April  9-1 1,  1788.  At  its  close  he  turned  his  horse's  head  in 
a  new  direction. 

*•  Holstein"  Conference  had  been  appointed  for  Tuesday, 
May  13.  It  was  held  at  Keywoods,  near  Saltville,  among 
the  mountains  of  southwestern  Virginia,  and  to  reach  that 
point  from  Georgia  the  bishop  must  traverse  the  upper  part 
of  South  Carolina,  the  roughest  section  of  North  Carolina, 
and  the  forest  fastnesses  of  eastern  Tennessee.  At  the  end 
often  days,  "both  saddles  being  broken,  both  horses  foun- 
dered, and  both  their  backs  sore,"  a  brief  halt  was  necessary. 
The  unusual  difficulties  of  the  next  stage  are  graphically  de- 
picted in  the  bishop's  Journal : 

"April  28.  After  getting  our  horses  shod,  we  made  a 
move  for  Holstein  [Holston],  and  entered  upon  the  moun- 
tains; the  first  of  which  I  called  steel,  the  second  stone,  and 
the  third  iron  mountain.  They  are  rough,  and  difficult  to 
climb.  We  were  spoken  to  on  our  way  by  most  awful  thunder 
and  lightning,  accompanied  by  heavy  rain.  We  crept  for 
shelter  into  a  little  dirty  house,  where  the  filth  might  have 
been  taken  from  the  floor  with  a  spade.  We  felt  the  want  of 
a  fire,  but  could  get  little  wood  to  make  it,  and  what  we  gath- 


342 


American  Methodism 


ered  was  wet.  At  the  head  of  Watauga  we  fed,  and  reached 
Ward's  that  night.  Coming  to  the  river  next  day,  we  hired 
a  young  man  to  swim  over  for  the  canoe,  in  which  we  crossed, 
while  our  horses  swam  to  the  other  shore.  The  waters  being- 
up,  we  were  compelled  to  travel  an  old  road  over  the  moun- 


OLD    REHOBOTH    CHURCH,    NEAR    UNION,    MONROE 
COUNTY,    VA.       BUILT    1 786. 

Bishop  Asbury  opened  this  chapel,  and  held  Conference  in  it  1702.  1793. 
1796.  Asbury,  Garrettson,  lee,  Poythress,  McKendree,  O'Kelly, 
and  Beverley  Waugh  preached  here. 

tains.  Night  came  on ;  I  was  ready  to  faint  with  a  violent 
headache.  The  mountain  was  steep  on  both  sides.  I  prayed 
to  the  Lord  for  help.  Presently  a  profuse  sweat  broke  out 
upon  me  and  my  fever  entirely  subsided.  About  nine  o'clock 
we  came  to  Grear's.  After  taking  a  little  rest  here,  we  set 
out  next  morning  for  Brother  Coxe's,  on  Holstein  River. 
I  had  trouble  enough.  Our  route  lay  through  the  woods, 
and  my  pack  horse  would  neither  follow,  lead,  nor  drive,  so 
fond  was   he  of   stopping  to  feed  on  the  green   herbage.      I 


An  Awful  Journey  and  a  Tiresome  Day 


343 


tried  the  lead,  and  he  pulled  baek.  I  tied  his  head  up  to 
prevent  his  grazing,  and  he  ran  back.  The  weather  was  ex- 
cessively warm.  I  was  much  fatigued  and  my  temper  not  a 
little  tried.  I  fed  at  I.  Smith's  and  prayed  with  the  family. 
Arriving  at  the  river,  I  was  at  a  loss  what  to  do,  but  provi- 
dentially a  man  came  along  who  conducted  me  across.  This 
has  been  an  awful  journey  to  me,  and  this  a  tiresome  day, 


DRAWN    5*   W     B     DAVIS. 

THE  HOME  OF  GENERAL  WILLIAM  RUSSELL,  SALTVILLF,  VA. 
Where  Asbury  was  entertained,  1788,  and  often  in  later  years. 

and  now,  after  riding  seventy-five  miles,  I  have  thirty-five 
miles  more  to  General  Russell's.  I  rest  one  day  to  revive 
man  and  beast." 

Such  was  the  journey  of  the  first  American  bishop  who 
crossed  the  mountains  to  hold  Conference  in  the  basin  of  the 
Mississippi. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 
Want  and  Travail  of  Asbury 

Holston  Conference.  —  Uniontown.— First  Methodist  Conference 
Session  in  New  York.— Address  to  President  Washington. — 
Washington's  Memorable  Reply. 

ELDER  JOHN  TUNNELL  and  his  handful  of  ultra- 
montane pioneers  met  the  travel-worn  bishop  in  a 
cheerless  cabin.  The  room  was  so  cold  that  even 
these  hardy  frontiersmen  could  hardly  keep  their  seats ;  but 
surely  it  must  have  warmed  their  hearts  to  listen  to  his  daily 
sermons,  and  to  see  in  his  presence  among  them  impressive 
evidence  that  the  connectional  tie  of  Methodism  was  not  to 
be  broken  by  mountain  or  wilderness.  The  itinerants  re- 
turned to  their  work  among  the  little  settlements  of  Tennes- 
see and  Kentucky,  refreshed  by  contact  with  the  brethren 
from  the  East  and  with  renewed  confidence  in  the  power  of 
the  new  cause  to  surmount  all  obstacles. 

For  the  Russells,  with  whom  Asbury  found  a  home  dur- 
ing this  Conference,  the  event  marked  an  epoch.  They  were 
a  pioneer  family  of  the  sturdiest  Virginia  type.  General 
William  Russell,  a  sterling  patriot,  had  migrated  to  this 
valley  less  than   a  year  earlier.      His  wife  was   Elizabeth,   a 

sister  of  the  orator,  Patrick   Henry,  and  herself  a  woman  of 

344 


An  Elect  Lady 


345 


great  strength  of  mind  and  will.  Both  General  and  Mrs. 
Russell  were  converted  during  this  Conference  session,  and 
their  home  became  a  harbor  of  refuge  for  the  homeless  itin- 
erants. Asbury's  note  of  his  entertainment  there  five  years 
later  was :  "  I  was  nursed  as  an  only  child  by  the  good  man  and 
woman  of  the  house,  and,  indeed,  by  all  the  family.  God 
Almighty  bless  them  and  reward  them."  For  years  after 
her  husband's  death  "Madam 
Russell"  was  a  pillar  of  Metho- 
dism in  southwestern  Virginia. 
She  was  a  family  connection  of 
President  Madison,  who  used 
to  say  that  no  prayers  touched 
him  like  hers.  The  Virginia 
Methodists  honored  her  by 
linking  her  memory  with  that 
of  a  distinguished  bishop  in  the 
name  of  their  college,  Emory 
and  Henry,  at  Abingdon,  where 
her  latter  days  were  spent. 

Asbury's  circuitous  route 
next  took  him  eastward,  to 
Petersburg,  where  he  met  the 
Virginia  preachers,  and  then 
northwestward,  crossing  the  mountains  of  western  Virginia 
a  second  time,  to  hold  Conference  atUniontown,  in  the  south- 
western angle  of  Pennsylvania.  This  midsummer  passage 
was  scarcely  less  distressful  than  that  of  the  early  spring. 
The  bishop  writes:  "The  mud  and  mire  was  such  as  might 
scarcely  be  expected  in  December.  We  came  to  an  old  for- 
saken habitation  in  Tygert's  Valley.  Here  our  horses  grazed 
about  while  we  boiled  our  meat.      Midnight  brought  us  up  at 


rROM  THE   LIKcNESS   IN   THE    BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH     BY  T.    L. 
PRESTON. 

MRS.  ELIZABETH    RUSSELL. 

This  sister  of  Patrick  Henry  was  converted 
during  Asbury's  stay  at  the  house  of  her 
husband,  General  Russell. 


346  American  Methodism 

Jones's,  after  riding  forty  or  perhaps  fifty  miles.  The  old 
man,  our  host,  was  kind  enough  to  wake  us  up  at  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  We  journeyed  on  through  devious  lonely 
wilds,  where  no  food  might  be  found  except  what  grew  in 
the  woods  or  was  carried  with  us.  We  met  with  two  women 
who  were  going  to  see  their  friends  and  to  attend  the  quar- 
terly meeting  at  Clarksburg.  Near  midnight  we  stopped  at 
A 's,  who  hissed  his  dogs  at  us ;  but  the  women  were  de- 
termined to  get  to  quarterly  meeting-,  so  we  went  in.  Our 
supper  was  tea.      Brothers  Phcebus  and   Cook    took  to  the 

woods;  old  gave  up  his  bed  to  the  women.     I  lay  along 

the  floor  on  a  few  deerskins,  with  the  fleas.  That  night  our 
poor  horses  got  no  corn,  and  the  next  morning  they  had  to 
swim  across  the  Monongahela.  After  a  twenty-mile  ride  we 
came  to  Clarksburg,  and  man  and  beast  were  so  outdone  that 
it  took  us  ten  hours  to  accomplish  it."  Here  he  was  enter- 
tained by  "Colonel  Jackson,"  preached  "with  freedom"  to 
seven  hundred  people,  and  then  took  up  his  fatiguing  journey, 
rising  betimes,  and  riding  far  into  the  night.  "  O,"  he  ex- 
claims, as  he  approaches  the  older  settlements,  "how  glad 
I  should  be  of  a  plain,  clean  plank  to  lie  on,  as  preferable  to 
most  of  the  beds !  .  .  .  The  gnats  are  almost  as  troublesome 
here  as  the  mosquitoes  in  the  lowlands.  .  .  .  This  country 
will  require  much  work  to  make  it  tolerable.  The  people 
are,  many  of  them,  of  the  boldest  cast  of  adventurers,  and 
with  some  the  decencies  of  civilized  society  are  scarcely  re- 
garded. .  .  .  On  the  one  hand  savage  warfare  teaches  them 
to  be  cruel-,  and  on  the  other  the  preaching  of  antinomians 
poisons  them  with  error  in  doctrine.  Good  moralists  they 
are  not,  and  good  Christians  they  cannot  be  unless  they  are 
better  taught." 

From    July  22   to  25,    1788,    Asbury   held    Conference   at 


In  Gown  and  Bands 


347 


Uniontown.  Whatcoat,  afterward  bishop,  was  one  of  the 
twelve,  preachers  and  probationers,  in  attendance.  A  youth 
who  was  present  long  remembered  the  solemnity  of  the  occa- 
sion when  the  bishop  and  Whatcoat,  in  gowns  and  bands, 
ordained  Michael  Leard.  This  was  the  first  Methodist  ordi- 
nation west  of  the  mountains.  It  "looked  well  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Church  people,"  says  our  eyewitness ;  "for  not  only 
did  the  preachers  appear  in  sacerdotal  robes,  but  the  morning- 
service  [of  the 
Church  of  Eng- 
land] was  read, 
as  abridged  by 
Mr.  Wesley." 

In  August  the 
overworked  su- 
perintende  nt 
spent  a  few 
days  at  Bath, 
Ya.,  for  his 
health,  occupy- 
ing himself 
closely  with  various  studies  and  in  reading,  writing,  and 
prayer.  In  September  he  was  ready  for  the  important  Con- 
ference at  Baltimore,  which  was  followed  by  one  in  Philadel- 
phia, the  first  to  be  held  there  since  the  organization  of  the 
Church  in  1784. 

This  year  of  innovations  was  not  to  close  without  another 
novelty.  From  September  30  to  October  4  the  first  session 
of  the  New  York  Conference  was  held  in  the  John  Street 
Church,  Asbury  presiding.  The  old  account  books  reveal 
the  splendor  of  this  metropolitan  session.  "Red  marine" 
and  "4  yds.  of  green  baize"  were  purchased  for  the  Confer- 


b--*5sisa 


FIRST    .METHODIST    EPISCOPAL   CHURCH, 
UNIONTOWN,    PA. 


348 


American  Methodism 


ence,   and  bills  of  expense  to-  the  amount  of  £8  8s.   were 
settled,  to  say  nothing  of  £2  $s.  \\d.  "for  keeping  Bishop 


KEVsrjat 


'CHARLESTON 


KE'CHED   Br    G.    W.    BONTE    FROM  THE    ITINERARY   IN  ASBURY'S   JOURNALS. 


bishop  asbury's  episcopal  round,  1788. 

January  i,  1788,  Asbury  was  on  the  Potomac  :  came  to  James  River  January  8;  to  Portsmouth,  V.i., 
January  14  ;  Winton,  N'.  C,  January  ,0;  Washington,  N.  C,  February  6;  Fayetteville,  N.  C, 
February  19;  reached  Charleston,  March  5  ;  crossed  Savannah  River  April  5;  Conference  at 
Forks  of  Broad,  April  q,  Rutherford,  N.  C  April  22;  May  3,  at  General  Russell's;  Salem, 
X.  (_'.,  May  20:  Petersburg,  Va.,  June  8  ;  Rehoboth,  Va.,  July  5;  Clarksburg,  Va.,  July  10  , 
Uniontown,  Pa.,  Conference,  July  22  ;  Bath,  Va.,  August  to;  Leesburg,  Va. ,  September  4  ; 
Baltimore.  September  to;  New  York,  September  29:  Dover,  Del.,  October  20.  November 
was  devoted  to  work  in  the  peninsula. 

Asbury's  horses,"   and  "lis.   for  a  bridle."     New   England 
was  still  a  barrier  to  the  itinerants,  and  from  its  inhospitable 


Conference  Address  to  President  Washington 


349 


border  the  bishop  again  turned  to  pass  the  winter  in  making 
the  rounds  of  the  Eastern  circuits.  He  arrived  in  South 
Carolina  in  February,  17S9.  Here  Coke  joined  him,  and  the 
two  set  out  on  a  fresh  round,  beginning"  with  Georgia  and 
ending  at  New  York — in  that  epoch-making  Conference  which 
determined  to  send  preachers  to   New  England  and  teachers 


Oaawn  e*  p.  E 


FEDERAL    HALL,    NEW    YORK,    1789. 
The  seat  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  at  the  time  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Address. 

to  the  Indians,  founded  the  Book  Concern,  and  made  to  the 
newly  inaugurated  President  of  the  United  States  the  formal 
greetings  of  the  American  Methodists. 

It  was  Asbury  who  suggested  to  the  Conference  the  pro- 
priety of  a  formal  address  to  President  Washington.  It  was 
unanimously  voted,  and  the  John  Street  minister,  the  Rev. 
John  Dickins,  with  the  Rev.  Thomas  Morrell,  an  officer  of 
the  Revolution,  waited  upon  the  chief  magistrate  and  secured 
an  appointment  for  the  episcopal  visit.  On  June  2  or  3 — the 
precise  date  is  in  debate — the  audience  took  place,  and  As- 
bury,  as  a  naturalized   American,   read   the   formal  address 


350 


American  Methodism 


1   with  great  self-possession,   in   an   impressive  manner,"  to 
which  the  President  replied  with  fluency  and  animation." 

The  Address  of  the  Bishops  was  written  by  Asbury,  and 
read  as  follows : 

We,  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  humbly  beg  leave,  in 
the  name  of  our   society  collectively,  in  these  United  States,  to  express  to  you 

the  warm  feelings  of  our 
hearts,  and  our  sincere 
congratulations  on  your 
appointment  to  the  presi- 
dentship of  these  States. 
We  are  conscious  from 
the  signal  proofs  you  have 
already  given  that  you 
are  a  friend  of  mankind  ; 
and  under  this  established 
idea,  place  as  full  confi- 
dence in  your  wisdom  and 
integrity  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  those  civil  and 
religious  liberties  which 
have  been  transmitted  to 
us  by  the  providence  of 
God  and  the  glorious 
Revolution,  as  we  believe 
ought  to  be  reposed  in 
man.  We  have  received 
the  most  grateful  satis- 
faction from  the  humble 
and  entire  dependence 
upon  the  great  Governor  of  the  universe,  which  you  have  repeatedly  expressed, 
acknowledging  him  the  source  of  every  blessing,  and  particularly  of  the  most 
excellent  Constitution  of  these  States,  which  is  at  present  the  admiration  of  the 
world,  and  may  in  future  become  its  great  exemplar  for  imitation  ;  and  hence 
we  enjoy  a  holy  expectation  that  you  will  always  prove  a  faithful  and  impartial 
patron  of  genuine,  vital  religion,  the  grand  end  of  our  creation  and  present  pro- 
bationary existence.  And  we  promise  you  our  fervent  prayers  to  the  throne  of 
grace,  that  God  Almighty  may  endue  you  with  all  the  graces  and  gifts  of  his 
Holy  Spirit,  that  he  may  enable  you  to  fill  up  your  important  station  to  his  glory, 
the  good  of  his  Church,  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  welfare  of  mankind. 

Signed  in  behalf  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,       Thomas  Coke. 

Francis  Asblrv. 


DRAWN   6Y   WARRES   e.    DAVIS. 


MAJOR    AXD    REV,   THOMAS    MORRELL. 


The  President  to  the  Bishops 


351 


To  whom  Washington  replied: 

I  return  to  you  individually,  and  through  you  to  your  society  collectively  in 

the  United  States,  my  thanks  for  the  demonstrations  of  affection,  and  the  ex- 


fMUW   lnt        urnt^uM        HuitTKAif   BT   GILBERT   STUART. 

GEORGE   WASHINGTON'. 


pression  of  joy  offered  in  their  behalf  on  my  late  appointment.  It  shall  be  my 
endeavor  to  manifest  the  purity  of  my  inclinations  for  promoting  the  happiness 
of  mankind,  as  well  as  the  sincerity  of  my  desires  to  contribute  whatever  may 
be  in  my  power  toward  the  civil  and  religious  liberties  of  the  American  people. 


3S2 


American  Methodism 


In  pursuing  this  line  of  conduct  I  hope,  by  the  assistance  of  divine  Providence, 
not  altogether  to  disappoint  the  confidence  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  re- 
pose in  me.  It  always  affords  me  satisfaction  when  I  rind  a  concurrence  of 
sentiment  and  practice  between  all  conscientious  men,  in  acknowledgments  of 
homage  to  the  great  Governor  of  the  universe,  and  in  professions  of  support  to 
a  just  civil  government.  After  mentioning  that  1  trust  the  people  of  every  de- 
nomination, who  demean  themselves  as  good  citizens,  will  have  occasion  lo  be 
convinced  that  I  shall  always  strive  to  prove  a  faithful  and  impartial  patron  of 
genuine,  vital  religion,  I  must  assure  you  in  particular  that  I  take  in  the  kind- 


THE    FRANKLIN    HOUSE,    FRANKLIN    SQUARE,    NEW    YORK. 
The  residence  on  the  right  was  occupied  by  President  Washington  in  June,  1789. 

est  part  the  promise  you  make  of  presenting  your  prayers  at  the  throne  of 
grace  for  me,  and  that  I  likewise  implore  the  divine  benediction  on  yourselves 
and  your  religious  community. 

The  Methodist  Address  was  printed  in  a  New  York  news- 
paper, and  provoked  an  acrid  communication  from  an  "  In- 
quirer," who  compared  the  senior  bishop's  Tory  professions 
and  associations  in  England  with  the  sentiments  of  this  ad- 
dress, and  charged  him  with  "the  extreme  of  hypocrisy"  in 
signing  it.  A  Methodist  replied  in  Coke's  defense.  Major 
Morrell  thought  that  some  of  the  adverse  criticism  arose  from 


Newspaper  Comment  353 

the  fact  that  the   Methodists  had  taken  the  lead  of  the  older 
denominations    in    recognizing    the    new    republic.     A    few 

weeks  later  the  New  York  Packet  had  the  grace  to  say : 

"  From  the  respectful  and  affectionate  address  of  the 
bishops  of  this  new  and  growing  Church  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  as  well  as  from  other  documents,  it  appears 
that  the  whole  society  are  warmly  attached  to  the  Constitu- 
tion and  o-overnment  of  the  United  States." 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

Asbury  and  his  Companion,  Whatcoat 

Second  Church  in  New  York. — A  Beginning  of  Sunday  Schools. 
— First  Kentucky  Conference.— News  of  Wesley's  Death. — 
Letter  to  Coke. 


T 


HE  time  had  come  for  the  building  of  another  church 
in  New  York  city,  and  Elder  Thomas  Morrell  was 
assigned  to  that  work.  To  him,  in  the  midst  of  his 
perplexities,  Asbury  wrote,  "  O,  brother,  piety,  patience, 
courage,  zeal,  and  industry  will  carry  you  through."  Rely- 
ing on  these  qualities,  suitable  lots  were  bought  in  Second, 
now  Forsyth,  Street,  near  Division.  The  corner  stone  was 
laid  on  Ausnist  11,  and  the  building  was  dedicated  on  No- 
vember  8,  1787.  It  was  of  rough  stone,  blue-stuccoed,  fifty 
by  seventy  feet.  It  was  without  spire  or  belfry,  and  stood 
"in  the  fields  eastward  from  the  city,"  with  a  burying 
ground  in  the  rear.  Asbury  pronounced  it  "commodious, 
elegant,  yet  plain."  A  revival — the  best  dedication  for  a 
church — -broke  out  under  Morrell's  preaching,  in  which  four 
hundred  were  converted.  Some  of  the  accompanying  scenes 
attracted  public  notice.  People  said  the  Methodists  were 
going  mad,  and  threatened  to  complain  to  the  police. 

After  Coke's  departure  Asbury  traveled  up  the  Hudson, 

where  Freeborn  Garrettson's  young  men  had  opened  the  way 

354 


A   Long  Journey 


355 


for  Methodism;  thence  across  New  Jersey  and  the  entire 
State  of  Pennsylvania  to  Pittsburg  ami  Uniontown.  The 
outlook  among  the  white  settlers  was  encouraging,  and,  in 
furtherance  of  the  action  of  the  recent  Conference,  he  wrote 
a   letter  to  Cornplanter,  sachem  of   the  Senecas.      "I    hope 


j^tzs  „  -*,,*;  <2^~~  J/*J>  *£ 


7 


7'7C 
79o 


*/L ^w/ ■', ' •-•  *'-^  »/$ * 


'    0 


•  Y?.fo 


hOiuGRAPnEO   I 


THE   FRUITS  OF   FIFTEEN    MONTHS,    1 789,    1790. 
Facsimile  of  the  entry  by  Kev.  Thomas  Morrell  on  the  fly  leaf  of  the  old  John  Street  Record  l'.ook. 

God  will  shortly  visit  these  outcasts  of  men,  and  send  mes- 
sengers to  publish  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation  among  them," 
he  recorded  in  his  Journal. 

Baltimore  seemed  like  home  to  the  homeless  Asbury  when 
^_^»  he  arrived    there    in  September, 

^te^cvj  ~4/r>rzM'    t0     bC     Welcomed     ^     dear     °ld 

friends,   and   to   find  the  city    in 

the  throes  of   a  powerful   revival  which  garnered  in  many 

children  of  the  first  generation  of  Methodists. 


356  American  Methodism 

In  the  winter,  accompanied  by  Whatcoat,  the  untiring 
bishop  set  off  to  hold  the  Conferences  of  1 790.  At  the  South 
Carolina  Conference  in  February  an  important  minute  was 
adopted  : 

"  Let  us  labor  as  the  heart  and  soul  of  one  man  to  estab- 
lish Sunday  schools  in  or  near  the  place  of  public  worship. 
Let  persons  be  appointed  by  the  bishops,  elders,  deacons, 
and  preachers  to  teach  (gratis)  all  that  will  attend,  and  have 
a  capacity  to  learn,  from  6  a.  M.  until  10,  and  from  2  p.  m. 
until  6,  where  it  does  not  interfere  with  public  worship. 
The  council  shall  compile  a  proper  schoolbook  to  teach  them 
learning  and  piety." 

There  had  been  isolated  Sabbath  schools  in  a  few  localities 
before  this,  but  not  until  now  have  we  record  of  any  Confer- 
ence authority  for  them. 

The  Methodists  of  Charleston  seemed  to  the  bishop  ' '  too 
mute  and  fearful,"  and  he  attributed  the  dullness  of  their  re- 
ligious zeal  to  a  lack  of  sufficient  "breast  work." 

In  the  country  circuits  he  judged  spirituous  liquors  to  be 
the  chief  enemy  of  religion.  "  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  think 
I  am  done  with  this  road  and  people,"  he  writes,  after  a  day 
of  discouragements.  "A  prophet  of  strong  drink  might  suit 
them." 

The  event  of  this  year  was  the  meeting  of  a  Conference 
in  Kentucky.  From  South  Carolina  Asbury  and  Whatcoat 
visited  Georgia  and  then  plunged  into  the  wilderness.  They 
encountered  the  usual  hardships  in  passing  the  Tennessee 
mountains,  but  gained  the  last  stockade  without  serious  mis- 
hap. From  this  point  to  the  seat  of  the  Kentucky  Conference 
at  Masterson's  Station,  five  miles  northwest  of  Lexington, 
they  traveled  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  under  the  protec- 
tion of  an  armed  band  of  frontiersmen,   the   region   being 


The  Invasion  of  Kentucky 


357 


infested  with  hostile  Indians.  A  watch  was  posted  at  night, 
"but,"  says  Whatcoat,  "  I  think  I  never  traveled  with  more 
solemn  awe  and  serenity  of  mind."     Each  day  they  stopped 


MOTOGRAPl 


HOUSE   NEAR    MASTERSON'S    STATION,    K.Y.,    WHERE   THE    FIRST  WESTERN 
CONFERENCE   WAS    HELD. 

The  photograph  was  made  May  15,  1890,  on  the  occasion  of  the  centennial  of  Kentucky 
Methodism,  May  13-18,  1890. 

to  pray  as  regularly  as  to  feed  their  horses.  The  bishop  was 
sleepless  and  worn.  To  him  the  journey  was  "  like  being  at 
sea,  in  some  respects,  and  in  others  worse.     Our  way  is  over 


358  American  Methodism 

mountains,  steep  hills,  deep  rivers,  and  muddy  creeks — a 
thick  growth  of  reeds  for  miles  together,  and  no  inhabitants 
but  wild  beasts  and  savage  men."  They  passed  on  the  way 
the  graves  of  twenty-four  settlers  from  one  camp  who  had 
been  massacred  by  Indians  a  few  nights  previous.  The  epis- 
copal party  reached  the  Kentucky  settlements  in  safety,  held 
the  little  Conference  of  six  preachers  on  May  16  and  17, 
1790,  and  fixed  the  plan  for  a  school,  the  Bethel  Academy. 

The  Kentucky  preachers  were  "indifferently  clad,  with 
emaciated  bodies,  and  subject  to  hard  fare;  yet,"  said  As- 
bury,  "I  hope  they  are  rich  in  faith."  For  himself  he  felt 
repaid  for  the  trying  exertion,  believing  that  the  visit  would 
"be  for  the  good  of  the  present  and  rising  generation"  in 
this  region,  the  most  fertile  his  eyes  had  ever  seen. 

A  week  later  they  set  out  for  the  east  with  an  armed  cara- 
van of  fifty  people,  organized  for  defense,  and  captained  by 
a  Methodist  preacher,  the  bishop  being  somewhat  in  the  ca- 
pacity of  an  adjutant  and  quartermaster.  In  great  haste  and 
through  anxious  alarms  they  crossed  the  Indian  country  un- 
molested, and  returned  through  the  Tennessee  wilderness  to 
North  Carolina,  where  the  waiting  Conference  received  their 
bishop  "as  one  brought  from  the  jaws  of  death."  He  had 
ridden  the  five  hundred  miles  in  nine  days,  traveling  two 
days  and  a  night  without  lying  down  to  rest!  His  jour- 
neyings  from  December  14,  1789,  to  April  20,  1790,  had 
amounted  to  two  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventy-eight 
miles. 

Resuming  now  his  usual  course,  Asbury  worked  his  way 
northward  by  easy  stages,  renewing  his  friendship  with 
Jarratt  in  Virginia,  and  reaching  New  York  in  October, 
where  he  preached  in  the  new  church  and  held  the  last  Con- 
ference of  the  year. 


♦'That  Dear  Old  Man  of  God" 


359 


In  the  spring  of  1791  the  two  bishops  were  together  again 
in  the  South  until  the  news  of  Wesley's  death  recalled  Coke 
to  England.  The  notice  of  "that  dear  old  man  of  God," 
John  Wesley,  in  Asbury's  Journal,  is  characteristic: 

"  When  we  consider  his  plain  and  nervous  writings ;  his 
uncommon  talent  for  sermonizing  and  journalizing;  that  he 


FROM  THE   PLAN    BY   GEORGE   ROGERS  CLARKE. 

BRYANT    STATION. 
A  famous  stockade  of  the  pioneer  days  in  Kentucky. 

had  such  a  steady  flow  of  animal  spirits;  so  much  of  the 
spirit  of  government  in  him  ;  his  knowledge  as  an  observer; 
his  attainments  as  a  scholar ;  his  experience  as  a  Christian  ; 
I  conclude,  his  equal  is  not  to  be  found  among  all  the  sons 
he  hath  brought  up,  nor  his  superior  among  all  the  sons  of 
Adam  he  may  have  left  behind.  .  .  .  For  myself,  notwith- 
standing my  long  absence  from  Mr.  Wesley,  and  a  few  un- 
pleasant expressions  in  some  of  the  letters  the  dear  old  man 
has  written  to  me  (occasioned  by  the  misrepresentation  of 
others),  I  feel  the  stroke  most  sensibly.  I  shall  never  read 
his  works  without  reflecting  on  the  loss  which  the  Church  of 
God  and  the  world  have  sustained  by  his  death." 


360  American  Methodism 

Both  bishops  preached  memorial  discourses  on  Wesley,  and 
the  Methodist  churches  were  generally  draped  in  mourning-. 


DEATH    MASK    OF   JOHN    WESLEY. 
Photographed  from  the  cast  of  Wesley's  features,  taken  after  his  decease. 

After  the  New  York  Conference  of  1791  Asbury  made  his 
first  long  excursion  into  New  England,  visiting  the  circuits 


A  Report  from  the  Firing  Line  361 

which  Jesse  Lee  had  formed  in  Connecticut  and  Massachu- 
setts. Before  his  return,  in  August,  1792,  to  hold  the  first 
session  of  the  New  England  Conference  at  Lynn,  Mass.,  he 
had  again  made  the  grand  circuit  as  far  south  as  Georgia, 
and  had  held  a  second  Conference  in  Kentucky,  in  April, 
1792.  The  passage  of  the  mountains  was,  if  possible,  more 
arduous  than  before.  "  How  much  I  have  suffered  in  this 
journey  is  only  known  to  God  and  myself,"  the  bishop  wrote. 
The  air  was  full  of  politics  (for  Kentucky  was  just  entering 
the  Union)  and  rumors  of  Indian  wars.  "  I  am  too  much  in 
company,"  he  writes.  "  and  hear  so  much  about  Indians,  con- 
ventions, treaty,  killing,  and  scalping,  that  my  attention  is 
drawn  more  to  these  things  than  I  could  wish."  Returning 
eastward,  the  caravan  avoided  the  main  trail  to  elude  the 
savages.  Some  nights  the  bishop  snatched  a  few  hours'  sleep 
on  the  cold  ground ;  at  other  times  he  kept  awake  to  watch 
the  drowsy  sentries.  In  May  he  met  the  Holston  preachers 
and  returned  to  the  seaboard  by  way  of  Uniontown,  in  south- 
western Pennsylvania. 

In  the  midst  of  such  strenuous  labors  as  these  the  bishop  in 
America  addressed  the  following  letter  to  his  colleague  in 
England : 

"  Rejoice  with  me  that  the  last  has  been  a  year  of  general 
blessing  to  the  Church  of  God  in  this  wilderness.  We  humbly 
hope  two  thousand  souls  were  born  of  God,  one  of  which  is 
well  ascertained  in  Jersey  and  York.  ...  I  have  served  the 
Church  upward  of  twenty-five  years  in  Europe  and  America. 
All  the  property  I  have  gained  is  two  old  horses,  the  con- 
stant companions  of  my  toil  six,  if  not  seven,  thousand 
miles  every  year.  When  we  have  no  ferryboats  they  swim 
the  rivers.  As  to  clothing  I  am  nearly  the  same  as  at  the 
first;   neither  have  I  silver  nor  gold,  nor  any  property.      My 


362  American  Methodism 

confidential  friends  know  that"  I  lie  not  in  this  matter.  I 
am  resolved  not  to  claim  any  property  in  the  Book  Con- 
cern. Increase  as  it  may,  it  will  be  sacred  to  invalid  preach- 
ers, the  college,  and  the  schools.  I  would  not  have  my 
name  mentioned  as  doing,  having,  or  being  anything  but 
dust.  I  soar,  indeed,  but  it  is  over  the  tops  of  the  highest 
mountains  we  have,  which  may  vie  with  the  Alps.  I  creep 
sometimes  upon  my  hands  and  knees  up  the  slippery  ascent ; 
and  to  serve  the  Church,  and  the  ministers  of  it,  what  I  gain 
is  many  a  reflection  from  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  I  have 
lived  Ions:  enough  to  be  loved  and  hated,  to  be  admired  and 
feared." 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 
The  British-American  Bishop 

First  Visit.— Antislavery  Sermons.— At  Mount  Vernon.— Charles 
Wesley's  Alarm.— Antigua.— Second  Visit.— Third  Visit.— Re- 
vival Scenes.  — The  New  York  Conference  of  1789. —  Fourth 
Visit.— Sad  News. 


WHILE  Asbury's  must  ever  be  the  commanding- 
figure  of  the  early  days  of  American  Methodism, 
the  work  of  his  colleague,  Coke,  must  be  kept  in 
view.  "The  little  doctor"  was  compact  of  energy,  and, 
though  his  brief  residence  in  this  country  and  his  great  and 
absorbing  interests  in  church  and  mission  work  abroad  mili- 
tated against  his  popularity  and  usefulness  here,  yet  he  en- 
joyed the  highest  respect  and  cooperated  cordially  with 
Asbury  in  counsel  and  execution. 

At  the  close  of  the  Christmas  Conference  he  departed  at 
once  for  the  North,  stopping  briefly  at  Abingdon,  Md.,  to 
prepare  for  the  building  of  the  new  college.  Crossing  the 
Susquehanna  on  the  ice,  he  came  to  Philadelphia,  and  after  a 
few  days'  sojourn  went  on  to  New  York.  Here  he  preached 
in  Wesley  Chapel,  whose  trustees  had  just  bought  prayer 
books,  supplied  a  mahogany  altar  rail,  and  were  beginning 

to  apply  the  name  of  "church"  to  Embury's  modest  preach - 

363 


364  American  Methodism 

inghouse;  for  henceforward  the  Methodists  need  not  go 
beyond  their  own  rooftree  to  celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper. 
Coke  collected  money  for  the  Nova  Scotia  missionaries,  and 
in  February  essayed  the  dangerous  passage  from  New  York 
to  Paulus  Hook  (Jersey  City),  and  so  by  way  of  Philadelphia 
to  the  hospitable  shelter  of  Perry  Hall. 

The  little  house  in  Lovely  Lane,  Baltimore,  the  birthplace 
of  the  Church,  was  not  large  enough  to  hold  the  throngs  who 
came  daily  to  hear  the  English  doctor,  and  he  prevailed  upon 
the  principal  Methodists  in  the  city  to  erect  a  building 
worthier  of  the  capital  of  Methodism.  The  sum  of  £500  was 
soon  subscribed,  the  mother  church  was  sold,  and  the  historic 
"  Light  Street  Church,"  the  scene  of  many  General  Confer- 
ences, was  built  to  take  its  place. 

At  the  end  of  the  winter  Coke  exchanged  the  luxury  of 
Perry  Hall  for  the  saddle,  and  rode  to  North  Carolina  to  hold 
Conference  with  his  colleague.  The  hardships  of  this  ride 
opened  his  eyes  to  the  rough  side  of  the  American  itinerancy. 
He  lost  his  way  in  the  woods,  was  mired  in  the  swamps,  and 
baffled  by  spring  freshets  in  the  bridgeless  and  unfordable 
streams.  While  crossing  one  stream  his  horse  was  swept 
from  under  him,  and  he  escaped  by  scrambling  among  the 
branches  of  a  floating  tree.  At  last,  much  frightened  and  in 
sorry  plight,  he  reached  dry  land.  It  was  a  shivering  mile 
to  the  nearest  plantation,  where  kindly  negroes  befriended 
him.  "  That  night,"  he  says,  "  I  lay  on  a  bed  on  the  ground 
and  slept  soundly.  Thus  was  I  wonderfully  preserved,  and 
shall,  I  trust,  never  forget  so  awful  but  very  instructive  a 
scene." 

Such  experiences  marked  his  progress  southward  to  Green 
Hill's,  in  North  Carolina,  wmere  the  Southern  preacheis  met 
in  Conference  for  three  days  with  both  superintendents. 


In  the  Enemy's  Country 


365 


While  in  Virginia  Coke  met  one  who  had  until  now- 
been  the  foremost  friend  of  the  Methodists — the  Rev. 
Devereux  Jarratt,  of  the  Anglican  Church.  As  Asbury 
and  Coke  now  represented  a  Church,  the  rival  of  his  own 
and  not  a  mere  society,  he  was  less  friendly  and  somewhat 


DRAWN     Br    JOHN     P.     DAVIS.  FROM     A     LITHOGRAPH. 

OLD    LIGHT   STREET   CHURCH,    BALTIMORE. 

disposed  to  cavil  at  the  validity  of  their  orders.  Their  strin- 
gent rule  against  slaveholding  was  an  offense  also.  ' '  The  se- 
cret is  that  he  has  twenty-four  slaves  of  his  own,"  says  Coke. 
This  region  was  not  the  most  favorable  for  antislavery  ser- 
mons, but  Coke  feared  no  man.  He  tells  us  that  the  un- 
awakened  conspired  to  flog  him,  and  a  woman,  whose  lofty 
headdress  seems  to  have  drawn  his  fire,  offered  these  base 
fellows  £50  "if  they  would  give  that  little  doctor  one  hun- 


366  American  Methodism 

died  lashes."  But  thanks  to  the  bold  front  of  two  of  the 
brethren,  one  a  magistrate  and  the  other  a  colonel,  the  out- 
break did  not  occur.  Rage  was  not  the  only  product  of  this 
bold  preaching,  and  the  preacher  had  his  reward  in  the  news 
that  many  slaves  had  been  manumitted. 

In  May,  at  Brother  Mason's,  in  Virginia,  says  Coke,  "a 
great  many  principal  friends  met  us  to  insist  on  a  repeal  of 
the  slave  rules."  But  the  threat  to  withdraw  the  preachers 
altogether  from  that  region  silenced  their  protest.  A  peti- 
tion of  Methodists  was  being  circulated  in  North  Carolina 
praying  the  Legislature  for  the  legal  right  of  manumission, 
and  now  the  Virginia  preachers  were  urged  to  get  hands  to 
a  petition  to  the  General  Assembly  "for  immediate  or  grad- 
ual emancipation."  In  furtherance  of  this  object  the  two 
superintendents  sought  an  interview  with  General  George 
Washington. 

Having  been  courteously  bidden  to  dine  with  the  general, 
the  two  Methodist  superintendents  went  to  Mount  Vernon. 
Dr.  Coke  is  the  historian  of  the  visit:  "  He  received  us  very 
politely,  and  was  very  open  to  access.  He  is  quite  the  plain 
country  gentleman."  After  dinner  they  "opened  the  grand 
business"  on  which  they  came — the  petition  for  emancipa- 
tion. "  He  informed  us  that  he  was  of  our  sentiments,  and 
had  signified  his  thoughts  on  the  subject  to  most  of  the  great 
men  of  the  State ,  that  he  did  not  see  it  proper  to  sign  the 
petition,  but  if  the  Assembly  took  it  into  consideration,  would 
signify  his  sentiments  by  a  letter."  Though  pressed  to  re- 
main overnight,  the  King's  business  required  haste,  and  the 
two  envoys  departed. 

On  the  first  of  June  the  Conference  met  at  Baltimore. 
Coke  preached  that  noon  and  early  the  next  morning,  and 
then  took  ship  for  England,  bidding  an  affectionate  farewell 


Coke's  Ordination  Sermon 


367 


to   the  earnest   men   whose   hearts  he   had   learned   to  know 
dining'  his  first  half  year  in  America. 

The  sermon  preached  by  Coke  at  Asbnry's  "ordination   to 


MENAUM  "   PORTRAIT   BT   GILBERT   STUART. 


MRS.    MARTHA    WASHINGTON. 


the  office  of  superintendent"  was  printed,  and  copies  of  it  were 
not  long  in  reaching  England.  Its  onslaught  on  the  Church 
of  England  in  America,  and  its  assumption  of  the  episcopal 


368  American  Methodism 

name  and  office,  were  heard  with  alarm  and  sorrow  by 
Charles  Wesley,  ever  fearful  lest  the  Wesleyan  societies  of 
England  should  cut  loose  from  the  Established  Church. 
' '  When  once  you  began  ordaining  in  America,"  wrote  Charles 
to  John,  "  I  knew,  and  you  knew,  that  your  preachers  here 
would  never  rest  till  you  ordained  them.  You  told  me  they 
would  separate  by  and  by.  The  doctor  tells  us  the  same. 
His  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Baltimore  was  intended 
to  beget  a  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  here.  You  know  he 
comes  armed  with  your  authority  to  make  us  all  Dissenters." 
John  Wesley  came  promptly  to  the  rescue:  "I  believe  Dr. 
Coke  is  as  free  from  ambition  as  from  covetousness.  He  has 
done  nothing  rashly  that  I  know ;  but  he  has  spoken  rashly, 
which  he  retracted  the  moment  I  spoke  to  him  of  it.  .  .  .  He 
is  now  ...  a  right  hand  to  me.  If  you  will  not  or  cannot 
help  me  yourself,  do  not  hinder  those  who  can  and  will.  I 
must  and  will  save  as  many  souls  as  I  can  while  I  live,  with- 
out being  careful  about  what  may  possibly  be  when  I  die." 

Instead  of  pursuing  his  "  avowed  design  and  resolution  to 
get  all  the  Methodists  of  the  three  kingdoms  into  a  distinct, 
compact  body,"  as  Charles  Wesley  had  feared,  Coke  went 
through  the  kingdoms  collecting  funds  for  missionary  enter- 
prises in  the  British  provinces  of  America.  His  active  mind 
looked  forward  to  a  great  missionary  organization,  in  behalf 
of  which  he  now  printed  his  historic  pamphlet,  An  Address 
to  the  Pious  and  Benevolent,  Proposing  an  Annual  Subscrip- 
tion for  the  Support  of  Missionaries. 

On  September  24,  1786,  Coke  again  embarked  for  America, 
with  a  mission  fund  and  three  preachers  for  the  work  in 
Nova  Scotia  which  young  Black  had  championed  so  ably  at 
the  Christmas  Conference.  His  vessel,  a  small  brig,  experi- 
enced terrible  gales,  so  violent  and  prolonged  that  the  cap- 


Beginnings  in  Antigua 


369 


tain  began  to  look  upon  his  pious  passenger  as  a  Jonah,  and 
one  day,  finding  him  at  prayer,  threw  overboard  some  of 
his  books  and  papers,  making  as  if  he  would  have  sent  the 
owner  after  them.  On  the  night  of  Oetober  30  the  hurri- 
canes threw  the  vessel  on  her  beam  ends,  and  the  Methodists 
gave  themselves  up  to  prayer.  "  It  was  not  until  after  this," 
to  quote  from  Coke's  diary,  "and  we  had  sung  a  hymn  to- 


AX    EARLY    CONFERENCE   IX    BALTIMORE. 

The  session  is  in  the  Conference  room,  over  Light  Street  parsonage.     Reproduced  from  the 
lithograph  in  Roberts's  Centenary  Pictorial  Album. 

gether,  that  the  foresail  was  shivered,  and  by  that  means  the 
masts  were  saved  and  probably  the  ship  itself."  After  two 
months  of  buffetings  and  driftings  the  baffled  and  leaking 
vessel  dropped  anchor  in  the  sunny  harbor  of  Antigua,  a 
thousand  miles  south  of  its  destination. 

Coke  found  work  ready  to  his  hand   in  this  island.      Na- 
thaniel Gilbert  and  his   Methodist    slave   women   had   sown 


370  American   Methodism 

Gospel  seed  there  years  before,  and  a  good  Methodist 
mechanic,  John  Baxter,  had  supplemented  their  labors  and 
built  a  preachinghouse.  The  work  was  ripe  for  an  organ- 
izer of  Coke's  zeal  and  ability,  and  he  devoted  the  winter  to 
preparing  for  an  advance  of  Methodism  through  this  part  of 
the  West  Indies. 

Thus  it  happened  that,  instead  of  reaching  the  United 
States  by  the  way  of  the  North,  the  English  superintendent 
landed  at  Charleston,  in  South  Carolina,  at  the  end  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1787.  He  found  a  Methodist  society  of  about  forty 
whites  and  fifty-three  colored,  and  opened  for  them  their 
church  on  Cumberland  Street.  It  was  a  plain  structure  of 
wood,  sixty  feet  by  forty  feet,  with  galleries  for  the  negroes. 
Asbury  soon  arrived,  and  here  in  the  last  week  in  March  the 
two  bishops  held  the  first  Conference  in  South  Carolina. 
The  reports  from  the  scattered  laborers  in  this  end  of  the 
continent  were  such  as  to  leave  Coke  "exulting  in  the  pros- 
perity of  Zion." 

The  two  apostolic  men  together  traveled  northward, 
visiting  the  backwoods  circuits.  The  Englishman  writes, 
"  I  have  got  into  my  old  romantic  way  of  life,  preaching 
in  the  midst  of  great  forests,  with  scores  and  some- 
times hundreds  of  horses  tied  to  the  trees."  Great  things 
had  been  wrought  in  these  groves.  "  When  I  was  in 
America  before,"  he  writes  on  the  Peedee  Circuit,  "there 
were  but  twenty  in  society  .  .  .  and  it  was  much  doubted 
at  the  Conference  whether  it  would  be  for  the  glory  of 
God  to  send  even  one  preacher  to  this  part  of  the 
country.  But  now,  chiefly  by  the  means  of  two  young 
men,  Hope  Hull  and  Jeremiah  Mastin,  the  societies 
consist  of  eight  hundred  and  twenty-three  members;  and 
no    less    than    two-and-twenty    preachinghouses    have    been 


Hardships  and  Compensations  371 

erected    m    this    single   preaching  circuit    in   the   course    of 
the  last  year." 

In  Virginia  the  Spirit  was  mightily  abroad.  Coke  preached 
to  four  thousand  people  in  the  woods  of  Mecklenburg  County, 
far  from  towns.  To  the  Conference  there  came  an  appeal  for 
help  from  the  pioneer  preachers  in  the  Indian  country,  beyond 
the  mountains.  The  perils  were  great,  the  earthly  rewards 
none,  yet  men  were  found  to  go.  "  What  can  we  not  do  or 
suffer  when  the  love  of  Christ  constrains!"  exclaimed  Coke, 
at  this  exhibition  of  devotion. 

At  the  Baltimore  Conference  in  May  arose  the  first  conflict 
between  the  international  itinerant  and  the  American  preach- 
ers, which  resulted  in  the  restriction  of  Coke's  authority  and 
the  dropping  of  Wesley's  name  from  the  American  Minutes — 
an  implication  of  robust  independence  on  the  part  of  the 
infant  Church.  The  two  bishops  proceeded  north  as  far  as 
Xew  York,  and  on  May  27,  1787,  Coke's  second  visit  to 
America  was  terminated  by  his  departure  from  Philadelphia 
for  England. 

In  February,  1789,  he  again  set  foot  in  Charleston, 
S.  C,  having  come  this  time,  not  unwillingly,  by  way  of  the 
West  Indies,  whei-e  his  missions  among  the  colored  people 
were  being  ardently  pushed.  In  company  with  Asbury  he 
traveled  toward  Grant's,  in  Wilkes  County,  the  seat  of  the 
second  Georgia  Conference.  The  country  was  rough  and 
raw,  the  fare  monotonous — hog  and  hominy,  for  the  most 
part,  with  eggs,  and  a  dish  of  tea  from  Asbury's  saddlebags — 
and  the  beds  conducive  to  sore  bones.  Coke's  Journal  notes 
the  discomforts,  but  declares,  "  The  great  revival,  the  rapid- 
ity of  the  work,  the  peculiar  consolations  of  God's  Spirit,  and 
the  retirement  I  met  with  in  these  vast  forests  overbalanced 
every  trial."     Even  Asbury  confessed  that  his  experiences  on 


372  American  Methodism 

this  occasion  impaired  his  health.  The  Conference  began  on 
March  9,  and  was  notable  for  the  appointment  of  a  committee 
to  obtain  endowment  for  a  "  Wesley  College  "  in  Georgia. 

The  two  bishops  opened  the  South  Carolina  Conference  at 
Charleston,  March  17,  1789,  and,  though  the  newspapers  at- 
tacked the  Methodists,  there  was  no  rioting  as  on  former 
occasions.  The  gain  of  membership  had  been  nine  hundred 
and  seven,  and  the  work  was  prospering.  A  month  later  the 
bishops  listened  to  reports  of  similar  prosperity  within  the 
bounds  of  the  North  State.  Preachers  and  letters  were  re- 
ceived there  from  Kentucky,  "  the  new  Western  world,"  as 
it  was  beginning  to  be  called.  The  cry  of  these  pioneers 
was  for  help  in  founding. a  Christian  college  beyond  the 
mountains,  and  the  overtaxed  bishops  held  out  hopes  that 
the  task  could  be  accomplished. 

Crossing  into  Virginia,  ' '  the  great  people  of  Halifax  County 
came  in  their  chariots  to  hear  me,"  writes  Coke,  who  was 
not  without  vanity.  "  There  were  not  less  than  five  colonels 
in  the  congregation  " — not  a  surprising  feature  of  many  a 
Southern  assemblage  to  this  day !  As  a  result  of  recent  re- 
vivals a  class  of  thirteen  young  men  offered  themselves  to 
the  bishops  at  the  Virginia  Conference,  and  for  once  the 
circuits  were  adequately  manned. 

In  Maryland  Coke's  preaching  was  accompanied  by  such 
demonstrations  as  had  marked  the  Virginia  revival  of  a  dozen 
years  previous.  At  Annapolis  the  shoutings  startled  him, 
"but  soon  the  tears  began  to  flow,"  he  says;  "and  I  have 
seldom  found  a  more  comforting  or  strengthening  time.  .  .  . 
Whether  there  be  wildfire  in  it  or  not,  I  do  most  certainly 
wish  there  was  such  a  work  at  this  time  in  England."  In 
Baltimore,  where  in  Conference  week  he  preached  to  two 
thousand  people,  hundreds  broke  out  into  prayer  or  praise  or 


Gracious  and  Wonderful  Changes  373 

exhortation  after  the  sermon.  One  elder  was  the  means  of 
the  conversion  of  seven  poor  penitents  in  one  little  group 
within  fifteen  minutes,  and  it  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning 
before  the  company  dispersed— many  of  them  to  reassemble 
for  a  morning  sermon  at  five  o'clock.  Asbury's  ministrations 
were  similarly  accompanied,  and  Coke,  after  a  calm  study  of 
the  strange  phenomena,  gave  them  his  approval.  Even  the 
enemies  of  the  Methodists,  he  declares,  admit  that  these 
stormy  meetings  have  wrought  "gracious  and  wonderful 
changes  upon  multitudes." 

From  fervid  Maryland  to  Jersey  was  a  step  into  a  more 
temperate  clime.  Old  as  the  work  was  here,  it  lacked  life, 
and  the  returns  to  the  Conference  of  1789  showed  a  serious 
loss.  New  York,  however,  was  found  astir  with  a  new  zeal. 
Faithful  John  Dickins  was  preacher  in  charge  at  John  Street. 
Henry  Willis  was  elder  for  the  city  and  Long  Island,  and 
Freeborn  Garrettson,  with  a  corps  of  zealous  missionaries,  was 
opening  the  Hudson  River  valley  to  Methodism.  The  Con- 
ference— the  second  which  had  been  held  here — began  on 
May  28,  and  was  an  historic  session.  "  We  have  a  great  re- 
vival and  a  great  increase,"  writes  Coke,  "  in  consequence  of 
which  we  are  going  to  build  a  second  church." 

Asbury's  brief  note  touches  upon  two  great  enterprises: 
"  Our  work  opens  in  New  York  State ;  New  England  stretch - 
eth  out  the  hand  to  our  ministry."  The  latter  clause  had 
reference  to  his  appointment  of  Jesse  Lee  to  carry  the  Meth- 
odist construction  of  the  Gospel  into  the  land  of  the  Calvin- 
ists.  It  was  Garrettson  who  had  opened  New  York  State  with 
a  set  of  inexperienced  but  zealous  youths.  At  this  Confer- 
ence plans  were  laid  for  the  organization  of  a  book  concern ,  and 
Coke  at  least  determined  that  Methodism  should  undertake 
a  mission  to  the  Western  Indians,  who   had    been   brought 


374  American  Methodism 

rudely  into  collision  with  civilization  in  the  rapid  advance  of 
settlement  beyond  the  mountains. 

Coke  embarked  at  New  York  for  England  on  June  5,  1789. 
He  was  scarcely  out  of  sight  of  land  before  the  newspapers 
began  to  find  fault  with  him,  a  Briton,  for  signing  his  name 
to  a  congratulatory  address  which  the  bishops  in  behalf  of 
the  Conference  had  presented  to  President  Washington.  A 
member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  defended  him  in 
an  able  letter  and  the  matter  soon  blew  over.  It  perhaps 
never  came  to  Coke  at  all,  whose  mind  was  too  full  of  plans 
for  the  extension  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  have  much 
thought  for  the  politics  of  this  world. 

It  was  evidently  Coke's  design  to  spend  about  six  months 
of  every  alternate  year  in  America,  but  his  fourth  visit  was 
cut  short  at  both  ends.  After  a  hasty  inspection  of  the  West 
Indian  missions  he  sailed  from  Jamaica  for  Charleston,  but 
after  a  month  of  perilous  adventures  was  wrecked^on  Edisto 
Island.  He  finally  reached  his  destination  on  February  23, 
1 79 1 .  Asbury  awaited  him  there.  Together  they  held  the 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia  Conferences,  and  on  their  way 
preached  to  the  Catawba  Indians,  who  seemed  rather  in- 
different to  their  doctrines,  but  were  anxious  to  secure  the 
aid  of  the  whites  on  the  warpath.  Coke  had  traveled  far, 
but  their  chief,  "a  grave  old  man,"  who  walked  with  "a 
mighty  staff,"  was  an  object  of  curiosity  to  him.  He  men- 
tions also  the  silver  nose-rings  of  the  men,  the  white  cotton 
garments  of  the  people,  and  the  substantial  quality  of  their 
cabins,  far  better  than  those  of  the  Irish  peasantry. 

The  North  Carolina  Conference  session  was  noted  for  "a 
remarkable  spirit  of  prayer."  Earnest  preachers  were  present 
from  the  isolated  circuits  beyond  the  mountains,  who  made 
these  rare  gatherings  with  the    brethren    seasons    of   great 


Sad  News  375 

refreshment.      "  Every  night,  before  we  concluded,  heaven 
itself  seemed  to  be  opened  in  our  souls." 

On  April  29,  at  Port  Royal,  Va.,  the  news  of  John  Wes- 
ley's death,  in  London,  on  the  second  of  the  preceding- 
month,  reached  Coke.  His  first  grief  was  too  deep  for  tears. 
Wesley  had  been  his  spiritual  father,  had  charged  him  with 
the  heaviest  responsibilities,  and  had  acknowledged  his  de- 
pendence upon  him.  Important  as  were  his  engagements 
in  America,  he  felt  that  England  needed  him  more,  and  at 
once  began  his  preparations  for  departure.  On  May  16  he 
set  sail  from  Newcastle,  Del.,  not  to  return  until  the  eve  of 
the  General  Conference  of  1792. 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII 
A  Declaration  of  Independence 

Three  Victories. —  The  Tilt  with  Coke.  — A  Grievance  against 
Wesley.— Declaration  of  Independence. 

THRICE  within  the  first  decade  of  its  history  did  the 
American  preachers  assert  with  energy  and  success 
their  authority  as  the  governing  body  in  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church.  They  rebuked  Coke  for  what  they 
considered  a  presumptuous  invasion  of  their  own  rights,  and 
placed  strict  limits  upon  his  power ;  they  openly  disregarded 
one  of  John  Wesley's  express  injunctions  and  temporarily 
dropped  the  name  of  their  venerated  founder  from  their 
Minutes;  and,  finally,  they  frustrated  a  plan  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church  by  an  appointive  council — the  establish- 
ment of  which  must  have  transferred  the  seat  of  legislative 
power  from  the  body  of  the  preachers  to  the  bishops. 

The  first  two  points  at  controversy  came  up  in  1787,  and 
were  closely  related.  At  the  Conference  of  the  previous  year 
three  Conference  sessions  had  been  appointed  for  the  year 
1787 — the  first  in  North  Carolina,  in  May  ,  the  second  in  Vir- 
ginia, in  June  ;  and  the  third,  and  principal  one,  at  Abingdon, 
in  Maryland,  beginning  on  Tuesday,  July  24.  Coke,  without 
consultation   with   the    preachers,    took    upon    himself  while 

absent  from  America  to  alter  the  date  and  to  call  a  General 

376 


"The  Utmost  Subtilty  of  Satan"  377 

Conference  of  the  preachers  to  meet  at  Baltimore  on  May  i. 
For  this  action  he  brought  a  show  of  authority  in  the  nature 
of  a  written  request  addressed  to  him  by  Mr.  Wesley,  sug- 
gesting the  change  of  place  and  date. 

The  Oxonian  Doctor  of  Laws  had  not  taken  sufficient 
account  of  the  independent  spirit  of  the  plain  men  who  com- 
posed the  American  Conference.  They  were  in  no  mood  to 
have  their  arrangements  disturbed  to  suit  the  personal  con- 
venience of  a  superintendent  who  spent  most  of  his  time  in 
England.  When  he  met  the  preachers  in  Conference  at 
Baltimore  he  found  himself  sharply  criticised,  though  he 
termed  the  ground  of  their  quarrel  "the  utmost  subtilty  of 
Satan."  Then  he  breaks  out :  "  But,  glory  be  to  God  !  Yea, 
glory  forever  be  ascribed  to  his  sacred  name,  the  devil  was 
completely  defeated.  Our  painful  contests,  I  trust,  have 
produced  the  utmost  indissoluble  union  between  my  brethren 
and  me.  We  mutually  yielded  and  mutually  submitted,  and 
the  silken  cords  of  love  and  affection  were  tied  to  the  horns 
of  the  altar  forever  and  forever." 

What  the  "  mutual  concession"  was,  of  which  Coke  makes 
so  much,  is  not  apparent,  but  the  following  document  from 
his  own  hand  makes  it  clear  what  at  least  one  side  yielded : 

The  Certificate  of  Dr.  Coke  to  the  Conference. 

I  do  solemnly  engage  by  this  instrument  that  I  never  will,  by  virtue  of  my 
office  as  superintendent  of  the  Methodist  Church,  during  my  absence  from  the 
United  States  of  America  exercise  any  government  whatever  in  said  Methodist 
Church.  And  I  do  also  engage  that  I  will  exercise  no  privilege  in  the  said 
Church  when  present,  except  that  of  ordaining  according  to  the  regulations  and 
laws  already  existing  or  hereafter  to  be  made  in  said  Church,  and  that  of 
presiding  when  present  in  Conference,  and,  lastly,  that  of  traveling  at  large. 

Given  under  my  hand  the  2d  clay  of  May,  in  the  year  1787. 

Thomas  Coke. 

John  Tunnell,  ) 

John   HAGERTY,   -  Witnesses. 

\"i  1  sox  Reed.     1 


378  American  Methodism 

Having;  thus  set  metes  and  bounds  about  its  English 
bishop,  the  Conference  took  up  the  subject  of  the  relation  of 
the  Church  to  Wesley  himself.  They  had  already  spoken  on 
this  topic.  On  the  first  page  of  the  Discipline  adopted  at  the 
Christmas  Conference  (1784)  the  Methodist  Episcopal"  Church 
in  America  declared  in  answer  to  Question  2  : 

"  During  the  life  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley  we  acknowledge 
ourselves  his  sons  in  the  Gospel,  ready  in  matters  belonging 
to  Church  government  to  obey  his  commands." 

When  that  voluntary  submission  was  put  to  vote  the 
prudent  Asbury  had  "sat  mute  and  modest"  in  his  place, 
not  venturing  to  make  an  unseemly  protest  against  such  a 
token  of  filial  regard,  but  foreseeing  the  awkward  entangle- 
ments which  might  spring  from  such  submission  to  an 
authority  three  thousand  miles  distant. 

An  awkward  situation  soon  arose.  On  September  6,  1786, 
Wesley  addressed  the  following  note,  already  alluded  to, 
to  Coke,  then  in  Great  Britain,  but  soon  to  revisit  these 
shores : 

"Dear  Sir:  I  desire  that  you  would  appoint  a  General 
Conference  of  all  our  preachers  in  the  United  States,  to  meet 
at  Baltimore  on  May  1,  1787,  and  that  Mr.  Richard  What- 
coat  may  be  appointed  superintendent  with  Mr.  Francis 
Asbury.  John  Wesley. 

"To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Coke." 

Mr.  Wesley,  moreover,  "had  given  directions  for  Brother 
F.  Garrettson  to  be  ordained  a  superintendent  for  Nova 
Scotia." 

To  acquiesce  in  these  "  directions"  would  have  been  to 
place  the  American  Church  completely  under  Mr.  Wesley's 
control.  It  was  one  thing  in  a  moment  of  excitement  to 
compliment  the  octogenarian  founder  of  their  religious  sys- 


A  Spirit  of  Independence 


379 


tem  by  calling  him  their  "father  in  the  Gospel;"  but  it  was 

quite   another   to   humiliate   themselves   in  the  eyes  of   their 
countrymen  by  meekly  taking  orders  from  him  and  accepting 


OM  AN  ENGRAVING   Br   SM 


HE   PAINTING   BY   RUCKLE. 


REV.    NELSON    REED    AT   THE   AGE   OF   82. 


such  bishops  as  he  might  designate.  Meekness  was  not  the 
leading  virtue  of  the  preachers  in  dealing  with  this  question. 
They  first   made  Coke   answer   for  the   altered    date  of  their 


380  American  Methodism 

Conference,  and  exacted  from  him  the  famous  "certificate" 
restricting  his  functions.  The  debate  on  the  proposition  for 
two  new  superintendents  brought  out  frank  expression  of 
opinions.  As  to  Nova  Scotia,  it  was  insisted  that  "if  or- 
dained for  that  station,  he  [Garrettson]  should  confine  himself 
wholly  to  that  place  .  .  .  and  not  be  at  liberty  to  return 
again  to  the  United  States,"  a  condition  upon  which  Garrett- 
son concluded  to  decline  the  honor. 

Against  the  promotion  of  Whatcoat  it  was  well  urged  that 
his  inexperience — he  had  been  but  two  years  out  from  Eng- 
land— rendered  him  unfit  for  the  duties  of  the  superintend- 
ency.  The  preachers  believed  they  saw  in  this  appointment 
a  cover  for  the  recall  of  Asbury,  whose  independence  was 
said  to  be  distasteful  to  Wesley. 

In  defense  of  his  master's  program  Coke  quoted  the  filial 
declaration  of  the  Christmas  Conference.  But  the  preachers 
stood  their  ground.  Some  declined  to  be  held  to  that  article, 
alleging  that  they  were  not  present  when  it  was  voted ;  others 
had  altered  their  opinion  of  its  expediency.  A  majority 
voted  to  rescind  that  engagement,  and  it  was  accordingly 
dropped  from  the  Minutes. 

Inasmuch  as  it  was  believed  that  the  present  trouble  was 
due  to  Wesley's  lack  of  information  touching  American  af- 
fairs, the  brethren  "wrote  him  a  long  and  loving  letter,  and 
requested  him  to  come  over  to  America  and  visit  his  spirit- 
ual children." 

The  memoirs  of  the  early  American  preachers  still  sparkle 
with  the  indignation  which  these  men  felt  over  these  assump- 
tions. Noticing  the  opinion  of  "some  disaffected  persons," 
that  it  was  improper  for  the  Conference  to  retract  its  engage- 
ment with  Wesley, the  Virginian,  Jesse  Lee,  exclaims, "If  there 
was  anything  improper  in   the  business,  it  was  in  entering 


A  Moment  of  Bitterness  381 

into  the  engagement,  and  not  in  departing  from  it."  Thomas 
Ware  saw  in  Wesley's  missive  a  plan  to  deprive  the  American 
preachers  of  their  legislative  power  and  vest  it  in  his  own 
appointees,  the  Englishmen — Coke,  Asbnry,  and  Whatcoat. 
The  impossibility  of  forcing  such  a  usage  upon  us,  says  "Ware, 
was  "a  fact  which  we  thought  Mr.  Wesley  could  not  but  have 
known,  had  he  known  us  as  well  as  we  ought  to  have  been 
known  by  Dr.  Coke."  That  the  scene  was  enlivened  by  an 
outburst  of  patriotie  sentiment  appears  from  the  testimony  of 
the  Rev.  William  Phoebus,  who  was  present  when  one  ardent 
speaker  cried  out:  "Mr.  Wesley  takes  too  much  on  him, 
yea,  too  much  to  be  borne  with  by  Americans.  If  his  power 
be  not  checked,  he  may  increase  his  impositions;  and  it  may 
grow  enormous,  even  to  popery!" 

As  Asbury  had  sat  silent  through  the  voting  on  the  adop- 
tion of  the  minute,  he  now  refrained  from  speaking  on  the 
motion  to  rescind.  But  this  did  not  save  him  from  Wesley's 
ire.  The  dropping  of  his  name  by  the  American  Church 
seemed  like  a  prophecy  of  the  dismemberment  of  the  Wes- 
leyan  body  which  he  feared  would  follow  his  death.  Of 
Asbury's  part  in  the  affair  he  bitterly  wrote :  "  It  was  not 
well  judged  of  Brother  Asbury  to  suffer,  much  less  directly 
encourage,  the  foolish  step  of  the  last  Conference."  In  his 
own  defense  Asbury  afterward  stated  that  he  would  have 
submitted  to  Wesley's  supremacy,  ' '  but  the  Americans  were 
too  jealous  to  bind  themselves  to  yield  to  him  in  all  things 
relative  to  Church  government." 

It  was  some  time  before  the  troubled  waters  subsided. 
Coke  was  restive  under  the  indignities  which  he  and  his  ven- 
erable superior  had  received  at  the  hands  of  these  unabashed 
republicans,  and  could  scarcely  be  restrained  from  traveling 
through  the  connection  and  uttering  his  protest  in  the  ear  of 


382  American  Methodism 

the  Church  at  large.  There  were  rumors  of  division  and 
secession,  some  preachers  still  preferring-  the  rule  of  the  re- 
nowned English  reformer  to  that  of  their  own  colleagues. 
"Many,"  says  one  who  knew,  "felt  like  being  scattered 
when  the  shepherd  had  received  so  many  blows  from  his 
friends." 

When  the  heat  of  the  hour  had  passed,  and  the  preachers 
had  time  to  recover  from  their  irritation  and  alarm,  they  re- 
gretted the  harshness  of  their  words  and  the  abruptness  with 
which  they  had  cast  off  the  tie  which  bound  them  to  Wesley. 
"We  felt  ourselves  grieved,"  says  Rev.  Thomas  Morrell, 
"that  the  good  old  man  was  hurt,  and  determined  to  give 
him  every  satisfaction  in  our  power  consistent  with  our 
rights."  Accordingly,  in  1789,  two  years  after  the  stormy 
session  at  Baltimore,  the  Church  honored  itself  by  writing 
John  Wesley's  name  again  on  the  roll  of  its  leaders.  There 
was  no  relic  of  the  old  submission,  but  simply  the  question 
and  answer : 

"Question  1.  Who  are  the  persons  that  exercise  the  epis- 
copal office  in  the  Methodist  Church  in  Europe  and  America? 

"Answer.  John  Wesley,  Thomas  Coke,  and  Francis  As- 
bury,  by  regular  order  and  succession." 

The  rights  once  claimed  by  Wesley  were  never  reasserted, 
and  his  death  a  few  years  later  parted  the  last  visible  tie 
between  the  original  WesLeyan  Conference  and  the  Church 
in  America.  Such  was  the  crisis  through  which  the  Church 
passed  triumphantly  in  1787,  the  result  being  what  Dr. 
Neely,  in  his  Governing  Conference,*  has  well  called  our 
"ecclesiastical  Declaration  of  Independence." 


CHAPTER    XXXIX 


The  First  Methodist  College 


Dickins's  Suggestion.— A  College  at  Abingdon'.— The  Bishops 
Plan  and  Appeal.— Strict  Rules.— Cokesbury  College  Opened. 
The  Burden  of  Debt.— Fire.— Academy  at  Baltimore.— Other 
Enterprises. 

THE  first  great  enterprise  of  the  newly  organized  Church 
was  the  founding  of  a  college.  In  fact,  as  early  as 
1779,  while  the  war  yet  raged  and  the  societies  were 
disintegrated,  Asbury  noted  in  his  Journal,  "We  spent  an 
evening  at  Widow  Bready's,  and  had  some  talk  about  erecting 
a  Kingswood  School  in  America."  His  companion  was  prob- 
ably John  Dickins,  a  "  gloomy"  Englishman  "  of  great  piety, 
great  skill  in  learning,  who  drinks  in  Greek  and  Latin  swiftly  ; 
yet,"  to  follow  Asbury  to  his  characteristic  conclusion,  "  prays 
much  and  walks  closely  with  God."  The  taste  for  books  and 
love  of  learning  he  brought  with  him  from  Eton  College. 
At  Asbury's  request  he  drew  up  in  June,  1780,  a  plan  for  a 
school  and  a  subscription  to  raise  funds.  "This,"  said  As- 
bury, "was  what  came  out  a  college.  ...  I  trust  this  maybe 
for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  thousands." 

Nothing  came  of  the  matter  at  the  time.     But  in  1784,  when 

Coke  and  Asburv  met  for  the  first  time  at  Barratt's  Chapel 

383 


384  American  Methodism 

and  opened  the  plans  for  the  organization  of  the  Church,  the 
project  of  a  school  for  the  Methodists  was  among  the  topics 
discussed. 

The  Christmas  Conference  in  December  authorized  the 
plans  for  a  college  to  be  established  at  Abingdon,  Md.,  and 
to  bear  the  name  "  Cokesbury  "  in  honor  of  the  two  superin- 
tendents. A  collection  amounting  to  £45  1 5^.  was  taken  in 
the  Conference,  and  the  bishops  were  instructed  to  raise  funds 
and  push  the  work  with  all  diligence. 

"  The  Plan  for  Erecting  a  College,  intended  to  advance  Re- 
ligion in  America,"  was  prepared  by  the  bishops  and  pre- 
sented to  the  members  and  friends  of  the  Church.  Its 
principal  contents  were  as  follows:  "The  college  is  built 
at  Abingdon,  in  Maryland,  on  a  healthy  spot,  enjoying 
a  fine  air  and  very  extensive  prospect.  It  is  to  receive  for 
education  and  board  the  sons  of  the  elders  and  preachers  of 
the  Methodist  Church,  poor  orphans,  and  the  sons  of  the 
subscribers  and  of  other  friends.  It  will  be  expected  that 
all  our  friends  who  send  their  children  to  the  college,  will, 
if  they  be  able,  pay  a  moderate  sum  for  their  education 
and  board.  The  rest  will  be  taught  and  boarded,  and,  if 
our  finances  will  allow  it,  clothed  gratis.  The  institution  is 
also  intended  for  the  benefit  of  our  young  men  who  are  called 
to  preach,  that  they  may  receive  a  measure  of  that  improve- 
ment which  is  highly  expedient  as  a  preparative  for  public 
service.  A  teacher  of  the  languages,  with  an  assistant,  will 
be  provided,  as  also  an  English  master  to  teach  with  the 
utmost  propriety  both  to  read  and  speak  the  English  lan- 
guage;  nor  shall  any  other  branch  of  literature  be  omitted 
which  shall  be  thought  necessary  for  any  of  the  students. 
Above  all,  especial  care  shall  be  taken  that  due  attention 
be  paid  to  the  religion  and  morals  of  the  children,  and  to 


The  Purpose  of  the  College  385 

the  exclusion  of  all  such  as  continue  of  an  ungovernable 
temper." 

The  bishops  promised  that  the  new  institution  should  con- 
serve three  principal  ends : 

i.  To  stand  in  the  place  of  a  parent  in  providing  for  the 
instruction  and  support  of  the  sons  of  the  preachers — "  men 
who  desire  nothing  on  earth  but  to  promote  the  glory  of  God 
by  saving  their  own  souls  and  the  souls  of  those  that  hear 
them." 

2.  To  give  support  and  Christian  education  to  poor  orphans. 

3.  To  maintain  a  seminary  "where  religion  and  learning 
may  go  hand  in  hand,"  for  the  sons  of  "our  competent 
friends,"  free  from  "the  temptations  to  which  they  are  too 
much  exposed  in  most  of  the  public  schools." 

All  "  who  wish  well  to  the  work  of  God"  were  urged  to 
contribute.  "Do  what  you  can,"  ran  the  appeal,  "to  com- 
fort the  parents  who  give  up  their  all  for  you,  and  to  give 
their  children  cause  to  bless  you.  You  will  be  no  poorer  for 
what  you  do  on  such  an  occasion.  God  is  a  good  paymaster. 
And  you  know  in  doing  this  you  lend  unto  the  Lord ;  in  due 
time  he  shall  repay  you." 

Instruction  was  offered  in  "English,  Latin,  Greek,  logic, 
rhetoric,  history,  geography,  natural  philosophy,  and  astron- 
omy," and  as  soon  as  means  should  allow,  "Hebrew,  French, 
and  German,"  arranged  in  a  curriculum  equal  to  that  of  any 
college  in  the  United  States. 

It  was  desired  that  pupils  should  be  admitted  as  young  as 
seven  years,  that  the  entire  course  of  their  education  might 
be  under  the  same  masters.  Care  was  to  be  taken  "  that  all 
who  shall  be  educated  in  our  college  may  be  kept  at  the  ut- 
most distance,  as  from  vice  in  general,  so  from  softness  and 
effeminacy  of  manners."     Early  rising  should  be  enforced 


386  American  Methodism 

and  "play,"  meaning  sport,  prohibited — Locke,  Rousseau, 
Peter  the  Great,  and  Vergil  being  cited  in  approval  of  the 
bishops'  plan  to  substitute  agriculture  and  architecture  as 
"  pleasing  recreations  for  the  mind  and  body." 

Everything  "immodest"  was  to  be  excluded  from  the  col- 
lege text-books  as  well  as  from  the  "  choice  and  universal 
library." 

In  conclusion,  it  was  pointed  out  that  to  help  the  college 
was  to  promote  the  public  good:  "  enabling  those  '  flames  of 
fire,'  who  might  otherwise  be  obliged  to  confine  themselves 
to  an  exceedingly  contracted  sphere  of  action  for  the  support 
of  their  families,  to  carry  the  savor  of  the  Gospel  to  the 
remotest  corners  of  these  United  States.  .  .  .  The  four 
guineas  a  year  for  tuition,  we  are  persuaded,  cannot  be  low- 
ered, if  we  give  the  students  that  finished  education  which 
we  are  determined  they  shall  have.  And,  though  our  prin- 
cipal object  is  to  instruct  them  in  the  doctrines,  principles, 
and  practice  of  Christianity,  yet  we  trust  that  our  college 
will  in  time  send  forth  men  that  will  be  blessings  to  their 
country  in  every  laudable  office  and  employment  of  life, 
thereby  uniting  the  two  greatest  ornaments  of  intelligent 
beings,  which  are  too  often  separated :  deep  learning  and 
genuine  piety." 

A  list  of  thirty-two  minute  rules  for  the  conduct  of  the 
future  students  was  annexed.  Pupils  were  to  rise  at  five 
o'clock,  summer  and  winter.  Public  prayers  were  at  six,  and 
from  their  close  until  breakfast  at  seven  the  boy  might  "  re- 
create" himself  by  gardening,  walking,  riding,  and  bath- 
ing, without  doors,  and  the  carpenter's,  joiner's,  cabinet- 
maker's, or  turner's  business,  within  doors.  After  breakfast 
there  were  four  hours  of  close  study ;  then  more  ' '  recreation," 
relieved  by  dinner;  study  again  until  supper  at  six  o'clock; 


The  College  Subscription 


387 


prayers  at  seven,  and  recreative  employment  until  the  nine 
o'clock  curfew. 

Rule  18  would  not  be  popular  in  these  days  of  college  ath- 
letics: "The  students  shall  be  indulged  with  nothing  which 
the  world  calls   play.      Let  this  rule  be  observed  with  the 


DRAAS   B*   J     P     DAVIS.  FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH. 

LOKESliURV  CHAPEL  AND  SITE  OF  COKESBURY  COLLEGE, 
ABINGDON,  MD.,  I9OO. 

strictest  nicety ;  for  those  who  play  when  they  are  young 
will  play  when  they  are  old,"  a  reflection  which  Wesley  had 
written  in  the  rules  of  Kingswood  School. 

The  sum  of  £1,057  17s-  sterling  was  subscribed. 

Two  days  after  the  Conference  adjourned  Coke  was  in 
Abingdon  giving  "orders  that  the  materials  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  college  be  procured  forthwith."  Four  acres  of 
land  were  purchased  of  Richard  Dallam  and  Aquila  Paca  for 


388  American   Methodism 

£60,  and  on  June  5,  1785,  "  warm  as  it  was,"  Asbury  stood  on 
the  site  of  the  proposed  building  and  preached  the  foundation 
sermon  from  Psalm  lxxviii,  4-8,  speaking  with  liberty  and 
in  the  "  faith  to  believe  that  the  work  would  00  on." 

It  was  a  period  of  severe  financial  depression  in  the  repub- 
lic, and  money  was  scarce.  When  has  it  not  been  scarce 
if  a  plea  goes  out  to  the  people  for  a  school?  Before  the 
roof  was  raised  the  enterprise  was  ,£900  in  debt.  Two  days 
before  Christmas,  1786,  Asbury  notes,  "Our  college  is  still 
without  a  cover,  and  our  managers,  as  I  expected,  almost  out 
of  breath."  On  Christmas  Day  the  trustees  met  and  agreed 
to  finish  two  rooms  in  the  budding,  and  send  to  England  for 
the  principal  teacher,  who  had  been  recommended  to  them. 
They  had  already  expended  ^2,000. 

The  college  building  was  one  hundred  and  eight  feet  long, 
forty  feet  wide,  and  three  stories  high.  It  included  an  as- 
sembly hall,  recitation  rooms,  and  dormitories.  It  was  pro- 
nounced to  be  in  "dimensions  and  style  of  architecture  fully 
equal,  if  not  superior,  to  anything  of  the  kind  in  the  country." 
Before  it  was  completed  it  had  cost  $40,000,  most  of  which 
was  collected  in  small  sums  from  a  large  number  of  contrib- 
utors, by  far  the  greater  number  of  whom  were  poor  people. 

The  first  head  of  the  college  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Heath,  a 
middle-aged  Church  of  England  clergyman,  who  had  been 
master  of  a  grammar  school  at  Kidderminster.  The  letter 
in  which  Coke  offered  him  the  position  has  some  interesting 
passages.  "The  college,"  he  writes,  "is  erected  on  the 
plan  of  our  school  at  Kingswood.  I  believe  we  shall  have 
about  one  hundred  scholars;  but  we  intend  to  begin  with 
fifty,  and  three  masters.  The  head  master's  salary  will  be 
£60  sterling,  and  lodging  in  the  college,  board,  washing,  etc., 
for  himself   and   family.  .  .  .  The  situation  is  an   eminence 


The  Attraction  of  Cokesbury 


389 


and  in  a  healthy  part  of  the  country.  There  are  several  of 
our  principal  friends  living-  in  the  neighborhood.  One  fam- 
ily  on  the   spot   (Mr.  Dallam's)    you'll    find   very  agreeable. 


FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  FURNISHED  BV  PRESIDENT  JOHN  F.  GOUCHER 

COKESBURY   COLLEGE   BELL,  I90O. 
The  bell  is  hunt;  in  the  office  of  the  Woman's  College,  Baltimore. 


There  is  a  brick  chapel  already  built  on  the  spot.  The  col- 
lege itself  (we  give  high  names  to  things  in  America)  ...  is 
built,  I  think,  on  a  much  larger  plan  than  Kingswood  school. 
There  will  be  two  large  schools.  It  is  within  twenty-four 
miles  from  Baltimore,  where  you  may  frequently  preach  and 


390  American   Methodism 

have  the  largest  congregation  we  have  on  the  continent.  .  .  . 
By  this  step  you  will  come  wholly  among  us." 

Heath  accepted.  Wesley,  who  had  cast  his  keen  eye  upon 
him,  pronounced  him  "thoroughly  qualified.'  He  came 
over  in  the  fall  of  1787,  and  on  December  6  the  first  Metho- 
dist college  in  the  New  World  opened  its  doors  to  twenty-five 
students,  the  vanguard  of  the  host  now  in  our  educational 
institutions.  Asbury  was  present  at  the  time,  and  delivered 
a  sermon  on  Trust  in  the  Lord,  and  on  the  Sunday  following 
solemnly  dedicated  the  edifice,  preaching  on  this  occasion 
from  the  significant  words,  "Oman  of  God,  there  is  death 
in  the  pot." 

Wesley's  lively  interest  in  the  school — though  he  detested 
the  name  Cokesbury,  as  savoring  of  worldly  vanity — is  at- 
tested by  a  letter  from  him  to  the  head  master,  proposing  a 
curriculum  of  study  which  he  claims  to  be  "the  best  and 
shortest  method  which  can  be  taken  to  make  children  critical 
scholars  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew." 

Troubles  beset  the  college  from  the  first.  Debts  always 
shadowed  it.  Dissension  broke  out  among  the  faculty,  and 
within  a  year  the  president  retired  under  charges  of  incom- 
petent Latin  scholarship.  A  new  president,  Dr.  Jacob  Hall, 
next  took  charge,  with  a  staff  of  superior  teachers.  For 
some  years  the  attendance  fluctuated  from  thirty  to  upward 
of  one  hundred.  Asbury 's  Journals  often  mention  its  affairs 
with  solicitude  for  its  temporal  condition  and  regret  that  re- 
ligion does  not  more  abound  among  the  boys.  In  1791  Coke 
found  seventy  students,  and  remarked:  "Many  from  the 
Southern  States  are  sending  their  young  men  here  to  finish 
their  education.  The  fear  of  God  seems  to  pervade  the  col- 
lege." Coke,  in  Baltimore  one  moment,  in  the  Bahamas  the 
next,  and  most  of  the  time  bevond  the  Atlantic,  might  catch 


The  Burning  of  Cokesbury  391 

rosy  glimpses  of  Abingdon,  but  upon  Asbury's  shoulders  the 
burden  weighed  continually.  In  the  winter  of  1 79 1 ,  in  Bal- 
timore, he  "  went  from  house  to  house,  through  the  snow  and 
cold,  begging  money  for  the  support  of  the  poor  orphans  at 
Cokesbury."  In  a  season  of  unwonted  hopefulness  he  wrote 
to  his  colleague:  "If  it  were  not  for  the  suspicions  of  some, 
and  the  pride  and  ignorance  of  others,  I  am  of  the  opinion  I 
could  make  provision  by  collections,  profits  on  books,  and 
donations  in  land  to  take  two  thousand  children  under  the 
best  plan  of  education  ever  known  in  this  country.  The  Lord 
begins  to  smile  on  our  Kingswood  School  (Cokesbury).  One 
promising  young  man  has  gone  forth  into  the  ministry,  an- 
other is  ready,  and  several  have  been  under  awakenings. 
None  so  healthy  and  orderly  as  our  children,  and  some 
promise  great  talents  for  learning.  The  obstinate  and  igno- 
rant oppose,  among  preachers  and  people;  while  the  judi- 
cious, for  good  sense  and  piety  in  Church  and  State,  admire 
and  applaud." 

The  subsequent  history  of  Cokesbury  College,  which  in  point 
of  time  belongs  to  a  later  period,  may  properly  be  given  here. 
After  severe  financial  trials,  which  in  1794  compelled  it  to 
seek  incorporation,  by  which  its  management  passed  from  the 
Conference  to  a  board  of  trustees,  its  end  came  suddenly. 
The  building  took  fire  on  December  7,  1795,  and  was  burned 
to  the  ground.  The  bitter  news  was  a  month  in  reaching 
Asbury.  "  Its  enemies  may  rejoice,"  he  wrote  in  the  first 
smart  of  his  disappointment,  "and  its  friends  need  not 
mourn.  Would  any  man  give  me  £10,000  per  year  to  do 
and  suffer  again  what  I  have  done  for  that  house  I  would 
not  do  it.  The  Lord  called  not  Mr.  Whitefield  nor  the  Meth- 
odists to  build  colleges.  I  wished  only  for  schools — Dr.  Coke 
wanted  a  college.     I  feel  distressed  at  the  loss  of  the  library." 


392 


American  Methodism 


The  destruction  of  the  college  at  Abingdon  was  followed 
by  the  opening  of  "  a  second  Cokesbury"  in  Baltimore  in  a 
brick  building  adjoining  the  Light  Street  Church  lot,  the 
Methodists  of  Baltimore  having  raised  a  large  fund  for  the 
new  enterprise.  This  met  with  great  success  for  all  too 
brief  a  period.  Pupils  of  both  sexes  were  admitted,  and 
the  scheme  for  the  instruction  of  girls  was  remarkably  lib- 


WN    Br    P.    E.     FUHTOFF  FROM    A  SKETCH    BY  SHORT. 

EBENEZER   ACADEMY.    BRUNSWICK    COUNTY,  \  A. 

This  building  stands  on  the  highway  from  Petersburg  to  Boydton. 

eral.  On  December  4,  1796,  this  building  also  caught  fire 
and  was  burned,  with  the  neighboring  church.  "  I  conclude 
God  loveth  the  people  of  Baltimore,"  wrote  Asbury  after  this 
second  adverse  stroke,  "and  will  keep  them  poor  in  order  to 
keep  them  pure." 

Cokesbury  College  never  rose  from  its  ruins,  and  it  was 
man)'  years  before  the  Methodists  attempted  to  found  an- 
other seat  of  learning  upon  so  ambitious  a  scale.  The  sacri- 
fices which  bishop,  preachers,  and  people  had  made  for  it 
were  extraordinary,  and  it  doubtless  seemed  to  many,  as  it 


A  Monument  to  High  Ideals 


393 


did  to  Asbury  in  the  first  bitterness  of  defeat,  that  the  Lord 
had  not  called  this  people  to  plant  colleges. 

Other  schools  and  academies  which  began  about  this  time 
under  Methodist  auspices — Ebenezer  Academy,  in  Bruns- 
wick County,  Va.,  Bethel  Academy,  in  Kentucky,  and  Cokes- 
bury  School,  on  the  Yad- 
kin, in  Surry  County, 
X.  C. — are  mentioned  in 
the  early  records,  but  the 
cost  of  maintaining  them 
and  the  indifference  of 
the  people  to  the  benefits 
of  education  limited  their 
sitccess. 

The  records  of  Cokes- 
bury  College  at  Abingdon 
perished  in  the  flames, 
and    no    catalogue    of   its 


FROM   A    PHOTOGRAPH. 


DRAWN    BY  P    E      FL 

THE   COKESBURY    KF.LL. 
Now  in  the  Woman's  College,  Baltimore,  Md. 


students  is  known.     Some 

men    who    studied    there 

took    hisfh    rank    in    after 

life,  among  them  the  Hon.  Samuel  White,  a  senator  of  the 

United    States;    Asbury    Dickins,    secretary  of    the    United 

States  Senate,  and  that  powerful  Methodist  preacher,  Rev. 

Valentine  Cook. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that,  had  its  property  been  spared,  the  col- 
lege would  have  exerted  a  marked  influence  upon  the  condi- 
tion of  the  denomination  and  of  the  Middle  States. 

The  grass-grown  ruin  at  Abingdon  is  a  monument  to  the 
high  ideals  and  painful  sacrifices  of  the  fathers.  Xo  one  can 
view  the  site  without  a  pang  of  sympathy  for  the  hearts  that 
ached  over  its  failure.     Yet  out  of  that  sorrowful  experience 


394 


American   Methodism 


has  come  the  rich  accomplishment  of  our  own  time,  when 
American  Methodism  rejoices  in  its  many  colleges  and  is  one 
of  the  most  powerful  forces  for  education  in  the  nation.  The 
old  bell  rescued  from  the  hopeless  ash  heaps  of  Cokesbury 
has  found  a  home  in  the  Woman's  College  in  Baltimore,  and 


FROM  A    PHOTOGRAPH. 


THE   COKESBURY    STONE. 


This  stone,  taken  from  the  ruins  of  Cokesbury  College,  was  built  into  the  foundation  of  the 
American  University,  Washington,  D.  C 

a  fire-scarred  stone  from  the  ruin  at  Abingdon  is  destined  to 
be  the  head  of  the  corner  of  that  college  of  the  American 
University,  in  Washington,  which  perpetuates  in  our  educa- 
tional system  the  name  of  Francis  Asbury. 


CHAPTER  XL 

Cheap  Books  for  the  People 

Consecrated    Printer's    Ink. —Robert    Williams's    Pamphlets.— 

Rankin's  Rules. — John  Dickins. —  Ezekiel  Cooper. — A  Useful 
Institution. 

JOHN  WESLEY  ordained  the  printing  press  to  be  a 
preacher  of  Methodism.  He  has  told  how  he  came  to  be 
the  founder  of  a  publishing  house:  "In  1738,  having  a 
desire  to  furnish  poor  people  with  cheaper,  shorter,  and  plainer 
books  than  I  had  seen,  I  wrote  many  small  tracts,  generally  a 
penny  apiece,  and  afterward  several  longer.  Some  of  these 
had  such  a  sale  as  I  never  thought  of;  and  by  this  means,  un- 
awares, I  became  rich."  By  this  means  also  it  came  to  pass 
that  the  British  Methodists  became  not  only  a  praying  and  a 
singing  people,  but  to  a  remarkable  degree  a  reading  people. 
These  cheap  books  and  tracts  ran  ahead  of  the  traveling 
preachers  and  often  prepared  the  way  for  them.  So  useful 
and  profitable  had  the  printing  of  books,  small  and  large, 
proved  in  England,  that  it  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that  the 
first  Wesleyan  missionary  who  came  to  this  country  availed 
himself  of  the  same  means  of  spreading  the  doctrines. 

This  was  Robert  Williams,  who  disembarked  at  Norfolk, 

Va.,  in  the  fall  of  1769,  and,   hymn  book  in  hand,  began  to 

395 


396  American  Methodism 

sing  and  pray  in  the  presence  of  a  curious  throng  on  the 
main  street  of  that  town.  Boardman  and  Pilmoor,  who  came 
shortly  after,  brought  a  box  of  Wesleyan  books  with  them, 
many  of  which  were  sold  in  New  York,  but  Williams,  who 
came  penniless,  was  soon  publishing  on  his  own  account. 
He  reprinted  Wesley's  most  effective  sermons,  putting  them 
up  in  cheap  pamphlets,  and  selling  them  wherever  he  went. 
Philip  Gatch  confessed  his  spiritual  debt  to  Wesley's  ser- 
mon on  Salvation  by  Faith,  one  of  the  tracts  which  fell  into 
his  hands  as  early  as  1772.  The  Rev.  Devereux  Jarratt, 
that  powerful  clerical  ally,  gained  confidence  in  the  Metho- 
dists through  "some  of  their  books  furnished  by  Mr.  Wil- 
liams." Jesse  Lee  says  the  small  pamphlets  which  he  circu- 
lated among  the  people  "had  a  very  good  effect,  and  gave 
the  people  great  light  and  understanding  in  the  nature  of  the 
new  birth  and  in  the  plan  of  salvation ;  and  withal  they 
opened  the  way  in  man)'  places  for  our  preachers  to  be  invited 
to  preach  where  they  had  never  been  before." 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Rankin's  instructions  touched 
upon  this  subject,  for  the  Conference  of  1773,  at  which  he 
presided  as  Wesley's  representative,  gave  special  attention  to 
publishing.      It  enacted  two  rules  already  alluded  to: 

"4.  None  of  the  preachers  in  America  to  reprint  any  of 
Mr.  Wesley's  books  without  his  authority  (where  it  can  be 
got)  and  the  consent  of  their  brethren. 

"5.  Robert  Williams  to  sell  the  books  he  has  already 
printed,  but  to  print  no  more  unless  under  the  above  restric- 
tion." 

This  was  a  step  toward  a  Methodist  press  in  America. 
Meanwhile  the  duty  of  the  preacher  as  colporteur  was  not 
forgotten.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in  the  first 
edition  of  its  Discipline,  enjoined  upon  the  preacher  in  charge 


The  Methodist  Book  Concern  397 

of  each  circuit  "care  that  every  society  be  duly  supplied  with 
books,  particularly  with  a  Kempis,  Instructions  to  Children. 
and  Primitive  Physic,  which  ought  to  be  in  every  home."' 
"  Be  active,"  so  ran  the  exhortation  to  the  preachers;  "be 
active  in  dispersing"  Mr.  Wesley's  books.  Every  assistant 
may  beg  money  of  the  rich  to  buy  books  for  the  poor." 

In  1787  the  book  business  came  up  again  for  notice  in  the 
Discipline.  It  was  agreed  that  the  Conference  should  be 
consulted  respecting  any  publication  of  books,  and  that  the 
profits  should  be  "  applied,  according  to  the  discretion  of  the 
Conference,  toward  the  college,  the  preachers'  fund,  the  de- 
ficiencies of  the  preachers,  the  distant  missions,  or  the  debts 
on  our  churches."  "  From  this  time,"  says  Lee,  "  we  began 
to  publish  more  of  our  own  books  than  ever  before,  and  the 
principal  part  of  the  printing  business  was  carried  on  in  New 
York." 

The  famous  Xew  York  Conference  of  May,  1789,  not  only 
voted  the  historic  address  to  President  Washington,  made 
plans  for  missions  among  the  Indians,  and  commissioned 
Jesse  Lee  to  invade  "the  enemy's  country"  of  New  England, 
but  it  has  the  honor  of  proposing  the  plan  for  the  establish- 
ment of  the  "  Methodist  Book  Concern,"  a  name  which  first 
appears  in  the  Conference  Minutes  of  1792. 

Coke  wrote  of  its  action :  ' '  We  have  now  settled  our  print- 
ing business,  I  trust,  on  an  advantageous  footing  both  for 
the  people  individually  and  for  the  connection  at  large,  as 
it  is  fixed  on  a  secure  basis  and  on  a  very  enlarged  scale. 
The  people  will  thereby  be  amply  supplied  with  books  of 
pure  divinity  for  their  reading,  which  is  of  the  next  impor- 
tance to  preaching ;  and  the  profits  of  the  books  are  to  be 
applied  partly  to  finish  and  pay  off  the  debt  of  our  college 
and    partly   to    establish   missions   and    schools    among    the 


398  American   Methodism 

Indians."     The  Rev.  John  Dickins,  to  whom  the  Conference 
of    1789    confided    the    stewardship    of    the    book    business, 

was  eminently  adapted  for 
this  work.  Both  wise  and 
learned,  no  better  selection 
could  have  been  made. 
Coming  to  America  before  the  Revolution,  he  united  with  the 
Methodists,  and  in  1777  was  taken  on  trial  as  a  preacher. 
His  work  lay  chiefly  in  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  until  the 
British  evacuation  of  New  York,  when  he  was  selected  for 
the  responsible  task  of  reviving  the  old  John  Street  society, 
which,  after  long  isolation,  had  lost  its  most  substantial  mem- 
bers in  the  Loyalist  exodus.  He  was  a  married  man,  and  for 
the  first  time  the  preacher's  house  in  New  York  rejoiced  in 
a  gentle  mistress,  and  the  voices  of  children  were  mingled  in 
the  hymns  which  were  sung  around  the  family  altar.  Dickins 
was  reappointed  to  New  York  every  year  but  one  until  1789, 
the  society  multiplying  in  numbers  and  grace  during  his 
protracted  term  of  service. 

The  Conference  of  1789  appointed  him  preacher  in  charge 
at  Philadelphia  as  well  as  book  steward.  He  was  editor, 
proof  reader,  business  manager,  bookkeeper,  salesman,  and 
shipping  clerk  of  the  infant  publishing  house,  and  he  is 
said  to  have  loaned  it  the  §600  which  formed  the  original 
business  capital.  The  accounts  of  the  Concern  were  opened 
in  Philadelphia  on  August  17,  1789.  The  first  book  issued 
was  a  reprint  of  The  Christian's  Pattern,  Wesley's  abridge- 
ment of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  one  of  the  first  Methodist 
books  issued  in  England,  and  one  which  is  still  found 
in  the  catalogue  of  the  American  house.  Other  early  Phila- 
delphia imprints  of  1789  and  1790  are  two  volumes  of  an 
American    reissue    of    the    Arminian     Magazine,    A    Form 


A  Book  Agent's  Support 


399 


of  Discipline,  the  hymn  book,  Baxter's  Saint's  Rest, 
and  that  most  curious  of  Wesley's  compilations,  Primitive 
Physic. 

In  1790  Diekins  was  relieved  of  pastoral  work  that  he 
might  <>ive  his 
whole  time  to  his 
duties  as  "super- 
intendent of  the 
printing-and  book 
business."  The 
principle  upon 
which  the  itiner- 
ants received  no 
salary  except  a 
bare  support  was 
applied  strictly  to 
his  case.  The 
sum  of  §666  yz 
was  granted  to 
him,  according  to 
the  Discipline  of 
1792,  to  be  ap- 
portioned as  fol- 
lows: "  (1)  S200 
for  a  dwelling 
house  and  for  a 
book  room ;  (2) 
SSo  for  a  boy ; 
(3)  $5  3^3  for  fire- 
wood, and  (4) 
S333  to  clothe  and  feed  himself,  his  wife,  and  his  children.' 

The  powers  of  the  book  agent  at  this  time  were  defined  : 


PHOTOGRAPHED   FROi 


EOLOGICAL   SEMINARY. 


TITLE-PAGE   OF   THE    FIRST    BOOK     ISSUED    BY    THE 
METHODIST    BOOK    CONCERN. 


400  American  Methodism 

"i  To  regulate  the  publications  according  to  the  state  of 
the  finances. 

"2.  To  determine,  with  the  approbation  of  the  Book  Com- 
mittee, on  the  amount  of  the  drafts  which  may  be  drawn 
from  time  to  time  on  the  book  fund. 

"3.  To  complain  to  the  District  Conferences  if  any  preach- 
ers shall  neglect  to  make  due  payment  for  books. 

"4.  To  publish  from  time  to  time  such  books  or  treatises 
as  he  and  the  other  members  of  the  Book  Committee  shall 
unanimously  judge  proper." 

This  first  Book  Committee  on  record,  that  of  1792,  con- 
sisted of  Dickins,  Henry  Willis,  and  Thomas  Haskins,  with 
the  Philadelphia  preacher  ex  officio.  The  General  Confer- 
ence of  this  year  felt  justified  in  granting  out  of  the  pro- 
spective profits  of  the  book  business  $800  to  Cokesbury 
College  for  the  next  year,  and  $1,066^  annually  for  the  rest 
of  the  quadrennium  ;  the  money  to  be  used,  first,  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  charity  boys,  the  balance,  if  any,  to  pay  the  debt 
or  finish  the  building.  The  annual  dividend  for  the  worn-out 
preachers  was  fixed  at  $266^3.  The  bishop  was  authorized  to 
draw  $64  annually  for  the  benefit  of  the  Conference  acade- 
mies. Any  surplus  over  these  payments  and  that  of  $866  to 
Dickins  was  to  be  added  to  the  capital.  The  annual  profits 
then  doubtless  exceeded  $2,500 — not  a  poor  return  for  the 
original  investment  of  $600. 

While  Dickius  superintended  the  business  of  the  office 
Philip  Cox  was  left  without  an  appointment  that  he  might 
travel  through  the  connection  in  the  interest  of  the  circula- 
tion of  the  books  and  the  collection  of  the  accounts  ;  an  impor- 
tant work  when  the  wide  dispersion  of  the  preachers  and  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  travel,  transportation,  and  trade  are 
considered.      At  his  death  the  Minutes  of  1794  thus  recognize 


Philip  Cox 


401 


his  services:   "Philip  Cox,  a  native  of  Britain,  who  was  born 
at   Froome,  Somersetshire.      He   joined   in  our   society  about 

THE       /!fa*2'&fS*0. 

ARMENIAN  MAGAZINE: 


CONSISTIKC  OF 


EXTRACTS 


ANO 


ORIGINAL    TREATISES 


General  Redemption. 


VOLUM  E    I. 
For  the  Year   1789. 

PRINTED    1*    PHILADELPHIA, 
it    F  P-  JCHAH  D  &  HALL,  m  MjvtsiT  jtiiit,   a»d  solo  3f 

JOi  U     lOflTK     ITttlf    («A«T    Hot;    vm 

I.     •      C?KS*l     Of     l«C(     IT*ItT», 


.mx, 


A^-Ei   e    QV   as  OR  G  •< 


TITLE-PAGE    OF   THE   ARMINIAX     MAGAZINE. 


J 


eighteen  years  ago,  and  had  been  in  the  ministry  about  six- 
teen rears,  during  which  time  he  traveled  extensivelv  through 


402  American   Methodism 

several  of  the  United  States,  lie  was  a  man  of  small  stature, 
great  spirit,  quick  apprehension,  sound  judgment,  a  lover  of 
union,  and  often  prayed  and  preached  to  the  admiration  of 
many,  and  in  various  parts  with  considerable  success.     His 

BRETHREN,  AND  FRIENDS, 

J/f/  E  are-  not  ignorant  that  the  Go/pel  has  been  preached  in 
the  eaflern  and  northern  parts  of  thefe  United  States, 

from  the  earliejl  Jetllement  of  the  country ;  but  this  has  been 
done  chiefly,  though  not  entirely,  through  the  Calvinifiic  me- 
dium :  the  confequence  of  which  has  been,  that  the  religious 
books  in  general  which  have  been  circulated  in  thofe  parts, 
and  in  fome  meafure  through  the  fouthern  fates,  have  more 
or  lefs  maintained  the  doclrines  of  unconditional  eleclion 
and  reprobation — that  "  GOD  is"  not  "  loving  to  every  man" 
and  that  "  his  mercy  is"  not  "  over  all-his  works;"  and  cori- 

fquently,  that  "  Chrif  did"  not  "  die  for  all,"  but  only  for 
a  fmaU  felecl  number  of  mankind :  by  the  means  of  which 
opinions',  Antinomiamfn  has  infenfibly  gained  ground,  and 
the  great  duties  of  felf  denial,  mortification,  crucifixion  to  the 
world,  and  all  the  other  fevere  but  effentially-neceffary  duties 
of  religion,  have  been  too  much  negletled  and  defpifed. 

FIRST  PARAGRAPH   OF  THE  PREFACE    TO  THE  ARMINIAN  MAGAZINE,  I789. 
Signed  by  P.ishops  Coke  and  Asbury,  dated  North  Carolina,  April  10,  1789. 

last  services  were  great  in  circulating  so  many  hundred  books 
of  religious  instruction."  Returning  in  the  early  autumn 
from  "  a  visit  to  the  westward" — an  expression  which  at  that 
time  stood  for  exposure,  privation,  and  irregular  diet  in  the 
wilderness  beyond  the  mountains — he  was  taken  mortally  ill, 
and  died  a  week  later. 

As  long  as  Dickins  lived  the  Church  owned  no  printing 
office.  The  books  of  1790  and  1791  were  printed  for  the 
Conference  by  R.  Aitken  &  Son  and  J.  Cruikshank.  of  Phila- 
delphia, the  Book  Room  being  then  at  43  Fourth  Street.      In 


The  Work  of  John   Dickins 


403 


1792  the  house  was  at  No.  1S2  Race  Street,  and  Parry  Hall 
was  the  printer.  From  1795  to  1 79S  the  Hook  Room  was  at 
50  North  Second  Street,  and  Henry  Tuekniss  did  the  printing. 
In  the  latter  year 
the  Book  Room  was 
at  41  Market  Street. 
between  Front  and 
Second  Streets. 

Dickins  gave  the 
last  nine  years  of 
his  life  to  the  special 
work  to  which  he 
was  called  in  1789. 
During  these  years 
one  hundred  and 
fourteen  thousand 
volumes  of  books 
went  out  from  the 
Methodist  Book 
Room  at  Philadel- 
phia. These  com- 
prisedWesley's  and 
Fletcher's  works, 
already  the  classics 
of  Methodism; 
hymnals,  Disci- 
plines, Christian  bi- 
ographies, devotional  books,  and  controversial  pamphlets,  at 
least  one  of  which,  Friendly  Remarks  on  the  Late  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hammet,  was  written  by  Dickins  him- 
self and  printed  by  request  of  the  Conference. 

This  first  agent  of  the   Book  Concern  died  at  his  post.      A 


photographeo  fro 


AX    EARLY    liouk    CONCERN    IMPRINT. 


404  American   Methodism 

pest  of  yellow  fever  was  ravaging  the  city,  and  men  and 
women  were  fleeing  before  it  Bnt  not  so  with  the  Methodist 
book  steward.  To  Asbury  he  wrote :  "I  sit  down  to  write 
as  in  the  jaws  of  death.  Whether  Providence  may  permit 
me  to  see  your  face  again  in  the  flesh  I  know  not.  Perhaps 
I  might  have  left  the  city,  as  most  of  my  friends  and  breth- 
ren have  done.  I  commit  myself  and  family  into  the  hands 
of  God  for  life  or  death."  His  last  words  when  smitten 
down  by  the  fever  were  to  his  wife:  "Glory  be  to  Jesus! 
O,  glory  be  to  my  God !  I  have  not  felt  so  much  for  seven 
years.  Love  him,  trust  him,  praise  him!"  He  died  on 
September  26,  1798.  He  was  buried  in  St.  George's  Church- 
yard, where  a  tablet  still  bears  his  name.  But  his  best 
memorial  is  the  great  and  beneficent  publishing  Concern 
with  whose  beginnings  his  name  will  ever  be  gratefully 
associated. 

Dickins  was  a  notable  figure  among  the  brethren,  and  no 
man's  loss,  save  one,  could  have  been  more  deeply  felt.  He 
was  powerful  in  the  pulpit — "the  thundering  Methodist" 
they  called  him  in  New  York.  Asbury  noted  his  piety,  his 
prayerfulness,  and  his  zeal  for  the  Christian  education  of  his 
children — a  eonsideration  which  doubtless  accounts  for  the 
intensity  of  his  interest  in  the  project  for  a  college.  The 
Minutes  say  of  him,  "  According  to  his  time  and  opportunity 
he  was  one  of  the  greatest  characters  that  ever  graced  the 
pulpit  or  adorned  the  society  of  the  Methodists." 

The  chairman  of  the  publishing  committee  of  the  Confer- 
ence at  the  time  of  John  Dickins's  death  was  Ezekiel  Cooper, 
then  presiding  elder  of  Wilmington  District.  The  news 
shocked  him,  and  he  was  "  doubtful  whether  we  shall  be  able 
to  supply  his  place  with  one  so  well  qualified."  To  him  As- 
bury wrote  at  once:    "My  very  dear  brother,  what   I  have 


Ezekiel  Cooper  Called 


405 


greatly  feared  for  years  has  now  taken  place.  Dickins,  the 
generous,  the  just,  the  faithful  Dickins,  is  dead!  ...  It  is 
to  you,  you  only,  I  can  look  ...  to  assist  Asbury  Dickins  to 
conduct  the  work  as  heretofore.  You  will  correct  the  press? 
You  will  superintend 
the  state  and  entries 
of  the  various  ac- 
counts, that  the  con- 
nection  and  the 
family  suffer  no  ma- 
terial injury?  The 
Magazine  must  be 
continued ,  five  or 
ten  thousand  hymn 
books  will  be  want- 
ing immediately.  .  . 
You  will  now  have  it 
in  your  power  to 
render  the  connec- 
tion .  .  .  such  exten- 


FRIENDLY    REMARKS 

ox  mi  utj 

PROCEEDINGS 
R£V.  Mr-  HAM. MET; 

TO  WHICH  IS  JNSCXrO 

A  LETTER  ADDRESSED  TO  HIMSELF. 


r.biiW  by  '>><  maimmt  Rer=»  »f  °"  Ccdktmt  hcii  a 

pUiiebkii  September  Jlh.   l~9*- 


Br  JOHN  DICKINS. 


Ir.t  it 

.  ^ 

,  <;-,/ 

1  Cor.  11:1. 

i*jr<ic<fctlli>e 

t-.7#  > 

* 

tllKT 

PHILADELPHIA; 
nib  t,  JCH.\  D!CA'I.\St  ».u.  181.  lACt 

IT1I 

sive  service  as  your 
heart,  I  hope,  de- 
sires.' 

Cooper  found  the 
business  embar- 
rassed by  debt  to  the 
Dickins  estate,  and 
the  collections  badly 
in  arrears,  and  it  was  only  after  repeated  exhortations  from 
Asbury  and  the  brethren  that  he  submitted,  in  1799,  and  took 
up  "his  cross,"  for  one  year  at  a  time.  He  at  once  prepared 
an  address   "to  the  preachers  and  friends"  of  the  Church, 


PROM    AM    O-ilG^AL    rN    Tn£    i  IBRARY    OF    DRE 

ONE    OF    DICKINS'S    WORKS. 


OLOGiCL   bE* 


406  American  Methodism 

setting  forth  the  aims  of  the  Book  Concern,  its  financial  em- 
barrassments, and  the  clear  duty  of  the  Church.  While  he 
found  the  business  in  debt  to  the  Dickins  estate  for  money 
advanced,  there  was  not  a  dollar  of  cash  with  which  to  pay. 
Large  sums  were  due,  however,  and  the  new  agent  pleaded 
most  earnestly  with  the  brethren  for  diligence  in  collections 
and  punctuality  in  remittances.  "The  business,"  he  says, 
"may  answer  a  noble  purpose  to  the  connection,  provided 
that  the  brethren  are  spirited  and  industrious  in  promoting 
of  it." 

Cooper  infused  new  energy  and  introduced  new  methods. 
Dollars  and  cents  took  the  place  of  sterling  money  in  his 
accounts.  The  employment  of  traveling  book  stewards  was 
abandoned,  and  the  book  agent  himself  inaugurated  the  now 
time-honored  plan  of  visiting  the  Annual  Conferences.  His 
hand  is  traceable  in  the  disciplinary  changes  of  1800.  He 
was  to  have  great  liberty  in  the  conduct  of  the  business,  the 
Conference  committee  retaining  only  the  selection  of  manu- 
scripts and  the  auditing  of  accounts.  Each  presiding  elder 
was  charged  with  supplying  his  district  with  books,  and  was 
made  answerable  to  the  bishop  for  the  correctness  of  his  ac- 
counts. The  preachers  in  turn  must  diligently  circulate  the 
books  among  the  people.  Improved  methods  of  collection 
were  introduced,  and  all  drafts  on  the  Concern  were  forbidden 
until  the  business  should  be  more  firmly  established,  after 
which  the  profits,  instead  of  being  scattered  among  many 
charities,  were  "to  be  regularly  paid  to  the  chartered  fund 
and  be  applied  ...  to  the  support  of  the  distressed  traveling 
preachers  and  their  families."  And  four  years  later,  when 
John  Wilson  was  appointed  junior  agent,  it  was  further 
enacted  that  the  general  book  steward  should  "  every  year 
send  forward  to  each  Annual  Conference   an   account  of  the 


The  Migration  of  the  Book  Concern 


407 


dividend  which  the  several  Annual  Conferences  may  draw  in 
that  year." 

A  local  church  trouble,  in  which  Cooper  became  involved, 


FROM    A   COPPEH 


REV.    EZKKIKL    COOPER. 
The  second  founder  of  the  Book  Concern,  t7gg-i8 


led  the   Philadelphia  Conference  to  declare  in   1803  for  the 
removal  of  the  book  business  to  Baltimore.      But  the  General 


408  American  Methodism 

Conference  of  1804  settled  the  matter  by  locating  the  office 
in  New  York  city,  where  it  has  ever  since  remained.  In 
New  York  Cooper  and  his  assistants  were  for  a  few  years 
regularly  stationed  preachers,  but  since  1808  all  agents  have 
been  left  free  from  pastoral  cares.  In  that  year  the  limit  of 
official  tenure  was  fixed  at  eight  years,  but  since  1836  the 
agents  have  been  elected  quadrennially. 

The  earliest  home  of  the  Book  Room  in  New  York  was 
probably  in  Gold  Street.  The  city  Directory  for  1805  gives 
the  "Methodist  Book  Store"  at  249  Pearl  Street.  Three 
years  later  it  was  in  a  plain  two-story  dwelling  house  in 
Church  Street,  near  White.  The  Rev.  Daniel  Devinne,  the 
father  of  the  eminent  printer,  has  described  a  visit  which 
he  made  to  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  of  that  day.  A  few 
blows  of  the  brass  knocker  aroused  "  a  very  lordly  looking 
gentleman.  He  was  dressed  in  short  breeches,  white  stock- 
ings, white  vest,  black  coat,  and  his  hair  was  combed  very 
artistically.  Without  saying  a  word  he  came  down  the  stairs, 
passed  into  another  room,  where  the  books  were  piled  upon 
the  floor,  and  handed  me  one  book.  I  gave  him  a  silver 
dollar,  and  he  gave  me  six  cents  change.  I  tried  to  make 
small  talk,  but  it  would  not  run." 

Ezekiel  Cooper,  who- gave  up  the  agency  in  1808,  was  the 
second  founder  of  the  Book  Concern.  When  elected  to  the 
post  in  1799  he  was  only  thirty-six  years  of  age,  but  had  al- 
ready developed  unusual  talents.  He  was  born  in  Caroline 
County,  Md.,  and  could  never  forget  that  at  the  age  of  thir- 
teen he  first  heard  Methodist  preaching  from  the  lips  of 
Freeborn  Garrettson  on  a  muster  day.  Converted,  with  a  rich 
experience,  before  he  was  twenty,  he  was  found  to  be  endued 
with  the  requisite  grace  and  gifts  to  be  a  circuit  preacher 
before    his    twenty-second    birthday.       His    eloquence    and 


Progress  of  the   Book  Concern  409 

energy,  tempered  with  foresight,  won  him  early  promotion, 
and  at  thirty  he  was  presiding  elder  on  the  important  Boston 
District.  Soon  afterward  he  was  chairman  of  the  supervisory 
committee  of  the  Book  Concern,  from  which  position  he  en- 
tered upon  that  in  which  his  friend  Dickins  had  fallen.  After 
eight  years  of  most  efficient  service,  in  which  the  publishing 
capital  was  increased  to  nearly  $50,000,  the  business  greatly 
extended,  and  its  methods  improved,  he  reentered  the  itin- 
erancy. His  closing  years  were  spent  in  Philadelphia,  where 
he  died  on  the  eve  of  his  eighty-fifth  birthday,  February  21, 
1847,  leaving  an  honorable  name  thixmghout  the  Church  for 
piety,  sagacity,  and  eloquence.  A  marble  slab  on  the  front 
of  St.  George's  Church  records  his  name  and  virtues. 

The  Book  Concern  continued  to  flourish  for  a  generation 
upon  the  original  plans  of  Dickins  and  Cooper.  Wilson  died 
in  18 10,  and  the  Rev.  D.  Hitt  conducted  the  business  alone 
until  18 12,  and  later  with  the  assistance  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Ware.  In  18 16  they  were  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Joshua 
Soule  and  Thomas  Mason,  their  store  being  at  41  John 
Street.  These  changes  bring  the  history  of  the  Methodist 
book  business  down  to  1820,  when  the  election  of  the  Rev. 
Nathan  Bangs  to  the  senior  agency  and  the  establishment 
of  a  branch  in  Cincinnati  in  charge  of  a  junior  agent,  "  to 
manage  the  Concern  in  the  Western  country,"  marked  a  new 
epoch  in  its  development. 

The  benefits  which  have  accrued  not  only  to  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  but  to  the  American  people,  from  the 
Methodist  Book  Concern  are  beyond  calculation.  For  more 
than  a  century  its  presses  have  supplied  the  Church  with  a 
rich  denominational  literature,  not  to  speak  of  works  of  gen- 
eral religious  and  theological  character.  Vast  sums  of  money 
have  been   paid  out   as  dividends  to  the  Annual  Conferences 


410  American  Methodism 

for  distribution  among  the  worn-out  veterans  of  the  Confer- 
ences and  the  widows  and  children  of  preachers.  The  man- 
agement of  its  weighty  interests  through  a  series  of  distress- 
ful conflagrations  and  paralyzing  financial  panics  has  proven 
the  fidelity  and  sagacity  of  the  chosen  agents  of  the  Church. 

But  its  best  service  lies  beyond  all  these  considerations. 
The  Methodist  press  was  established  at  a  critical  juncture  in 
the  religious  history  of  America.  Infidel  France  being  the 
closest  political  friend  of  the  young  republic,  the  fascinating 
literature  of  the  French  deists  and  atheists  was  everywhere 
read  and  admired.  Thomas  Paine's  blasphemous  pamphlets 
were  circulated  with  unholy  zeal  and  baneful  effect.  Earnest 
Christians  of  other  sects  perceived  the  danger  and  bewailed 
it.  The  Methodists  contributed  largely  to  arrest  this  skep- 
tical influence. 

In  the  Discipline  of  1796  the  bishops  raised  the  warning 
cry  and  roused  the  traveling  preachers  to  action.  "  Next  to 
the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,"  they  declared,  "  the  spreading 
of  religious  knowledge  by  the  press  is  of  the  greatest  moment 
to  the  people.  .  .  .  The  books  of  infidelity  and  profaneness 
with  which  the  .States  at  present  abound  demand  our  strong- 
est exertions  to  counteract  their  pernicious  influence ;  and 
every  step  shall  be  taken  which  is  consistent  with  our  finances 
to  furnish  our  friends  from  time  to  time  with  the  most  useful 
treatises  on  every  branch  of  religious  knowledge." 

The  Methodist  books  were  small,  inexpensive,  singularly 
free  from  the  ponderous  terms  of  theology,  and  holding  out 
a  hopeful  system  of  religion  to  the  people.  The  itinerancy 
supplied  a  corps  of  unselfish  agents,  continually  traveling 
through  all  sections  of  the  country  and  giving  gratuitous  and 
effective  advertisement  to  the  books  with  which  their  saddle- 
bags were  stocked.     The  masterly  reasoning  of  Weslev  and 


The  Contribution  of    Methodism  411 

the  fervid  appeals  of  Fletcher  influenced  men  who  would 
not  have  been  seen  in  a  Methodist  meeting".  Let  it  not  be 
forgotten  that  in  the  general  Christian  effort  to  build  up  a 
vast  practical  religious  literature  in  this  country  the  Metho- 
dist Hook  Concern  contributed  a  large  share  toward  the 
magnificent  result,  and  that  the  plans  devised  by  Dickins 
and  Cooper  rank,  though  in  a  different  way,  with  those  of 
Benjamin  Franklin  and  Isaiah  Thomas  as  supplying  books 
for  the  unlimited  field  winch  was  opening  before  the  new 
republic. 


CHAPTER  XLI 

The  Apostle  of  New  England 

Boyhood  of  Jesse  Lee.— Christ  in  the  Household. — An  Unwilling 
Soldier.— Early  Itinerant  Service.— A  Call  to  New  England. 
— Bishop's  Assistant. — Later  Labors  and  Travels. 

THE  apostle  of  Methodism  in  New  England  bore  the 
name  of  one  of  the  first  families  of  his  native  Virginia. 
Jesse,  the  second  son  of  Nathaniel  and  Elizabeth  Lee, 
was  born  on  his  father's  plantation,  in  Prince  George  County, 
March  12,  1758.  His  parents  were  respectable  Church  of 
England  folk,  who  went  regularly  to  church  and  lived  moral 
lives  without  much  thought  of  the  religion  of  the  heart. 
Schools  did  not  flourish  in  the  Old  Dominion,  but  John  and 
Jesse  Lee  had  such  education  as  the  neighborhood  provided. 
Jesse  learned  the  Catechism  out  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  in  a  local  singing  school  his  mellow  voice  re- 
ceived some  training  for  the  effective  service  for  which  he 
was  unconsciously  preparing. 

Except  for  an  occasional  "indulgence  in  bad  tempers" 
and  the  "use  of  some  vain  words"  Jesse  Lee's  boyhood 
seems  to  have  been  upright  and  moral.  When  his  natural 
gayety  might  have  led   him  astray  his  attention   was  called 

to  his  soul's  needs  by  the  conversion  of  his  father  under  the 

412 


The  Making  of  an  Apostle  413 

preaching'  of  a  wandering  Methodist.  His  mother  passed 
through  the  same  joyous  experience,  and  religion  became  the 

chief  interest  of  the  Lee  household.  For  Jesse  it  was  a  hard 
struggle,  but  in  1774,  in  his  seventeenth  year,  he  came  out 
into  the  light  and  joined  a  Methodist  society. 

The  preachers  on  Brunswick  Circuit  made  his  father's 
house  a  preaching  place,  and  the  young  man  was  brought 
much  under  their  influence.  In  the  sweeping  tides  of  the 
great  revival  in  Virginia  he  "discovered  that  the  blood  of 
Christ  could  indeed  cleanse  from  all  sin." 

Though  naturally  diffident,  he  now  began  to  tell  of  his 
spiritual  blessings,  and  in  1778,  when  he  removed  across  the 
border  into  Carolina,  be  began  to  lead  a  class  and  exhort 
publicly,  often  with  tears  streaming  down  his  manly  cheeks, 
"  for  my  heart  yearned  over  the  souls  of  poor  sinners."  All 
his  spare  time  he  devoted  to  "  reading  or  going  to  meeting," 
and  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  took  a  text — 1  John  iii,  12 — 
and  preached  his  first  sermon,  praying  God  to  pardon  his 
imperfections. 

It  was  John  Dickins,  whose  name  is  linked  with  every- 
thing progressive  in  our  early  history,  who  recognized  the 
talent  wrapped  in  the  young  Virginian's  diffidence  and  took 
him  out  on  the  circuit. 

In  July,  1780,  Lee  was  drafted  into  the  Continental  service. 
"As  a  Christian  and  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel"  he  "could 
not  fight,"  nay,  would  not  even  shoulder  the  musket  that 
was  thrust  into  his  hands,  though  he  stoutly  asserted  his 
patriotism.  His  colonel  put  him  under  arrest  at  first,  but 
being  convinced  of  his  conscientious  scruples,  he  soon  re- 
leased him,  and  assigned  him  to  duty  as  a  noncombatant. 

Lee's  success  as  a  camp  preacher  seemed  to  be  a  fresh  call 
into  the  itinerancy,  yet  he  hesitated,  "  fearing  that  I  should 


414  American  Methodism 

injure  the  work  of  God,  which  I  loved  as  I  did  my  own  life." 
He  sought  to  test  the  Lord's  will  by  marrying,  praying  "  that 
if  it  was  the  will  of  God  that  I  should  ever  be  called  to  the 
itinerant  field,  I  might  not  succeed  in  changing  my  state." 
He  became  a  chief  among  the  apostles,  and  died  a  bachelor. 

However  reluctant  to  join  the  preachers,  he  could  not  keep 
away  from  them.  In  1782  he  was  permitted  to  sit  in  the 
Conference  room  at  Ellis's  Chapel,  Sussex  County,  Va.,  and 
witness  the  fraternal  spirit  there  exhibited.  "The  union 
and  brotherly  love  which  I  saw  among  the  preachers,"  he 
wrote,  "exceeded  everything  I  had  ever  seen  before,  and 
caused  me  to  wish  that  I  was  worthy  to  have  a  place  among 
them.  When  they  took  leave  of  each  other  they  embraced 
and  wept  as  though  they  never  expected  to  meet  again."  At 
the  close  of  the  session  Asbury  sought  out  Lee  and  asked 
him  to  take  a  circuit.  But  the  young  man  protested  his  in- 
sufficiency. Asbury,  however,  called  out  to  some  of  the 
preachers,  "  I  am  going  to  enlist  Brother  Lee." 

"  What  bounty  do  you  offer?  "  answered  one,  taking  up  the 
pleasantry. 

"Grace  here  and  glory  hereafter,  if  he  is  faithful,"  said 
the  leader;  and  Lee  treasured  the  words  in  his  memory, 
though  for  six  months  more  he  shrank  from  taking  the 
decisive  step. 

When  the  Conference  met  again  at  Ellis's,  in  May,  1783, 
Jesse  Lee  put  his  hand  to  the  plow.  His  first  appointment 
was  to  Caswell  Circuit,  in  North  Carolina,  and  the  first  ser- 
mon of  his  itinerant  career  was  delivered  "at  Widow  Parker's 
to  a  few  people,  most  of  whom  were  called  out  of  the  harvest 
field."  Their  inattention  was  not  so  discouraging  as  his 
experience  of  the  next  day  with  certain  disorderly  members. 
He  was  inclined  to  return  to  his  father's  house,  but  happily 


New  England's  Need  415 

concluded  to  persevere.  He  rapidly  developed  superior 
power  in  the  pulpit.  His  emotions  were  easily  stirred,  and 
his  tears  mingled  with  those  of  his  hearers.  In  more  than 
one  place  where  he  "preached  with  liberty  .  .  .  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  came  upon  us  and  we  were  bathed  in  tears — so  loud 
were  the  people's  cries  that  I  could  scarcely  be  heard,  though 
I  spoke  very  loud."  His  Journal  is  punctuated  with  such 
notes  as  "many  tears,"  "very  happy,"  "my  soul  all  on  fire 
of  love,"  "  I  found  that  love  had  tears  as  well  as  grief." 

The  theater  of  Lee's  earlier  labors  was  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina.  In  the  latter  State  he  nearly  perished 
while  fording  the  flooded  Yadkin,  his  horse  having  lost  its 
footing.  Here,  too,  on  December  12,  1784,  he  received  his 
summons  to  the  Christmas  Conference,  but  Baltimore  was 
five  hundred  miles  distant,  his  health  was  feeble,  and  the 
weather  and  roads  so  bad  that  he  did  not  venture  on  the 
journey.  A  month  later  he  met  his  newly  elected  bishop. 
To  his  surprise  and  dismay  Asbury  was  arrayed  for  preach- 
ing in  black  gown,  cassock,  and  bands — strange  attire  for 
plain  and  simple  Methodists.  Lee  accompanied  the  superin- 
tendent and  Henry  Willis  as  far  south  as  Charleston.  It  was 
while  on  this  journey,  at  a  place  called  Cheraw,  that  one  of 
those  providential  dispensations  which  only  a  pagan  would 
call  chance  turned  Lee's  attention  to  the  field  which  was  to 
make  him  famous. 

The  three  preachers  were  kindly  entertained  by  a  mer- 
chant of  the  place,  and  Lee  with  his  natural  good  fellowship 
made  friends  with  the  clerk  of  their  host.  The  young  man 
was  from  Massachusetts,  and  in  response  to  Lee's  inquiries 
concerning  the  religion  of  his  native  State  he  gave  such  a 
lively  description  of  the  grim  theology  of  the  New  England 
churches  and  the  spiritual  deadness  of  ministers  and  people 


416 


American   Methodism 


that  it  flashed  through  the  mind  of  the  Methodist  that  here 
waited  a  work  ready  for  his  hand.  Five  years  elapsed  before 
the  desire  of  his  heart  was  granted ;  but  he  kept  it  before  the 
bishop,  before  his  fellow-preachers,  and,  we  cannot  doubt, 


'.  '~fri'/*  ■%  *rV  W-a  '■■■; ' 


FROM  A     PHOTOGRAPH 


OLD  ST.  DAVID'S  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  CHERAW,  S.  C. 
Where  Jesse  Lee's  attention  was  called  to  the  spiritual  dearth  of  New  England. 

before  the  Lord  in  prayer  until  it  was  accomplished.  Mean- 
while he  rendered  effective  service  in  the  Carolinas  and 
Maryland. 

In    1789  his  prayer  was  granted  and  he  was  appointed  to 


Later  Labors  of  Lee 


417 


Stamford,  Conn.  For  the  next  eight  years  he  gave  himself 
wholly  to  the  establishing  of  Methodism  in  the  New  England 
States.  Asbury's  personal  appeal  for  assistance  recalled  him 
southward  in  the  fall  of  1797.  With  the  bishop,  whose 
health  was  feeble,  he  traversed  the  vast  territory  of  the 
Church  for  several  years  from  Maine  to  Georgia.  At  the 
General  Conference   of   1800  he    fell    but   one  vote    short  of 


" 


£ 


— 


— 


DRAWN  BY   P.    E.    FLINTOFF.  FROM    A   COPPERPLATE    ENGRAVING. 

THE  OLD  CAPITOL,  WASHINGTON". 
Here  the  Senate  and  House  met  when  Jesse  Lee  was  their  chaplain,  1800-1814. 

election  as  bishop.  The  choice  went  to  Whatcoat.  Most  of 
the  next  six  years  he  spent  in  Virginia  as  presiding  elder 
and  circuit  preacher,  being  engaged  also  in  writing  a  memoir 
of  his  brother,  the  Rev.  John  Lee,  which  was  published  about 
the  end  of  1805.  In  1807  he  traveled  at  large  in  the  South, 
especially  in  Georgia,  where  he  was  received  with  the  cor- 
diality which  his  intellectual  and  social  gifts  merited.  The 
next  year,  after  a  quarter's  service  in  his  native  State,  he 
made  a  farewell  visit  to  New  England,  being  welcomed  as  a 
spiritual  father  by  thousands  of  Methodists.  No  American 
preacher  was  so  well  known  throughout  the  East  as  this 
noble  Virginian,  whose  cordial  manner  and  ready  wit  every- 
where won  him  the  friendship  of  those  with  whom  he  came 
in  contact. 


418 


American  Methodism 


In  May,  1809,  he  was  elected  chaplain  of  the  United  States 
House  of  Representatives,  and  in  December  of  the  same  year 
his  .Short  History  of  the  Methodists  in  the  United  States  of 

America  was  put  to  press. 
It  was  the  first  work  of  its 
kind,  and  for  many  years 
stood  alone.  The  extent 
and  accuracy  of  the  author's 
information  have  made  the 
book  to  this  day  one  of  the 
principal  authorities  of  the 
student  of  history.  After 
successive  reelections  to 
the  chaplaincy  of  the  House 
he  was,  in  18 14,  chosen 
chaplain  of  the  Senate,  still 
maintaining  his  relations 
with  the  Conference  and 
being  regularly  appointed 
to  a  circuit.  But  his 
course  was  well-nigh  run. 
Though  not  yet  sixty  years 
of  age,  he  was  worn  by 
labors  and  hardships  and 
harassed  by  disease.  He 
attended  his  last  Confer- 
ence, in  Baltimore,  in 
March,  1816,  and  was  stationed  at  Annapolis.  Two  months 
later  he  walked  as  mourner  behind  the  remains  of  his  great 
captain,  Asbury. 

The  twelfth  of  September,  18 16,  was  the  last  earthly  day 
of  Jesse   Lee.      Late   in   August  he  had  been  stricken   with 


DRAWN    BY    W      6     DAVIS-  FROM   A   PHOTOGRAPH. 

MONUMENT  TO  JESSE  LEE. 
In  the  church  lot,  Mt.  Olivet  Cemetery,  Baltimore,  Md 


Death  of  Jesse  Lee  419 

a  mortal  illness  while  preaching  at  a  camp  ground  near 
Hillsborough,  Md.  For  two  weeks  the  fever  ravaged  those 
splendid  vital  energies  which  had  been  so  devotedly  used  in 
the  service  of  his  Master.  On  the  day  before  the  end  he 
cried  out,  "Glory,  glory,  glory!  hallelujah!  Jesus  reigns!" 
In  the  evening  he  spoke  calmly  for  some  minutes,  sending 
last  messages  to  absent  friends,  and  bidding  farewell  to  the 
tearful  company  at  his  bedside.  The  next  night  his  spirit 
passed  without  sigh  or  groan. 

Jesse  Lee's  services  to  the  Church  were  of  the  highest 
order.  Though  he  failed  of  an  election  to  the  general  su- 
perintendency,  no  one  except  the  bishops  traveled  more 
widely  than  he,  and  no  laborer  ever  made  such  solid  eon- 
quests  as  he  was  enabled  to  achieve  in  New  England.  The 
simplicity  and  integrity  of  his  character,  the  fixity  of  his 
faith,  the  fervor  of  his  appeals,  coupled  with  a' social  faculty 
which  gained  him  popularity  in  the  cabins  of  the  Carolinas, 
among  the  shrewd  citizens  of  the  North,  and  in  the  halls  of 
the  national  Congress — these  were,  qualities  which  made 
Jesse  Lee  such  a  mighty  apostle  of  Methodism. 


CHAPTER   XLII 
Free  Grace  among:  the  Elect 

A  Yankee  Abroad. —The  New  England  Churches. —  Lee  Sent  to 
Stamford.  —  The  First  Sermon.  —  Opposition.  —  The  First 
Classes. — Preaching  "  Principles."— Reinforcements. 

JESSE  LEE'S  yearning  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  a  free  sal- 
vation to  the  people  of  New  England  dated  from  Febru- 
ary, 1785,  when,  at  Cheraw,  in  South  Carolina,  the  clerk 
from  "down  East"  amazed  the  young  itinerant  with  his  ac- 
count of  the  cold  and  unsatisfying  nature  of  what  passed  for 
religion  in  that  remote  region. 

The  New  England  States  at  that  time  formed  a  community 
of  nearly  one  million  souls.  The  people  were,  with  rare 
exceptions,  of  pure  English  stock,  descended  from  the 
Puritan  immigrants  of  the  seventeenth  century.  In  thrift, 
in  a  more  general  education,  and  in  at  least  the  externals  of 
religion  they  surpassed  their  countrymen  of  the  Middle 
States  and  the  South.  The  ancient  union  of  Church  and 
State,  though  somewhat  impaired,  still  existed,  and  the  Con- 
gregational churches  were  supported  by  taxes  laid  upon  the 
property  holders  of  the  parishes,  just  as  highways  and  bridges 
wrere  maintained. 

The  pastor,  usually  a  graduate  of  Harvard  or  Yale,  was 

420 


The  New  England  Theology  421 

often  a  man  of  learning,  and  was  the  object  of  high  respect 
and  reverence.  Long  pastorates  were  the  rule,  and  not  sel- 
dom the  son  followed  the  father  in  the  pulpit  and  in  the 
esteem  of  the  people.  Yet,  with  their  high  morals  and  pro- 
found erudition,  the  "orthodox"  ministers  of  New  England 
were  singularly  ignorant  of  that  religion  of  the  heart  of  which 
the  humblest  Methodist  itinerant  possessed  full  assurance. 
Instead  of  calling  upon  their  hearers  to  repent  of  their  sins 
and  lead  a  new  life  they  delivered  sermons  full  of  meta- 
physical argument  on  obscure  points  of  doctrine,  addressed 
solely  to  the  intellect.  In  the  villages  the  Sunday  morning 
sermon  was  "the  one  event  of  the  week.  There  were  no 
concerts,  no  lectures,  no  plays,  and  indeed  no  Sunday 
newspapers,  to  draw  away  the  thoughts  of  men  from  religion." 
Those  who  attended  listened  closely  and  even  took  notes, 
and  in  the  absence  of  news  the  subtle  points  of  the  sermon 
were  topics  of  discussion  throughout  the  community. 

The  doctrines  preached  from  the  New  England  pulpits  of 
that  day  were  Calvinistic.  God  was  the  dread  Sovereign  of 
the  universe ;  his  just  and  immutable  decrees  had  ordained 
all  things  from  the  beginning;  in  his  wisdom  he  had  chosen 
a  portion  of  mankind  for  salvation,  and  all  except  these  must 
perish  in  eternal  torments.  These  and  kindred  tenets  made 
up  the  hard  and  hopeless  creed  of  orthodoxy.  Before  1789 
several  other  sects  had  gained  a  footing  beside  the  ancient 
Churches.  Baptist  societies  were  spreading  rapidly  from 
Roger  Williams's  colony  of  Rhode  Island.  In  New  Hamp- 
shire the  Freewill  Baptists  had  raised  a  spirited  protest 
against  a  theology  which  seemed  to  rob  man  of  the  power  of 
choice.  Some  twenty  churches  were  governed  on  the  Pres- 
byterian plan.  The  historic  Church  of  England,  which  had 
thus  far  made  but  slight  headway  against  the  Puritan  dread 


422  American  Methodism 

of  ecclesiasticism,  was  turning  over  its  handful  of  missions 
to  the  feeble  beginnings  of  Protestant  Episcopalianism.  A 
few  Roman  Catholics  and  Quakers  only  served  to  emphasize 
the  overwhelming  preponderance  of  the  churches  of  the 
Congregational  order. 

The  Congregational  ministers  represented  all  shades  of 
evangelical  belief,  from  avowed  Unitarianism  to  the  full  ac- 
ceptance of  the  Westminster  Confession.  For  a  generation 
there  had  been  no  great  revival  among  the  Churches,  and  the 
spirituality  of  Jonathan  Edwards  and  George  Whitefield, 
which  had  once  warmed  the  hearts  of  the  people,  had  become 
a  thing  almost  unknown. 

The  war  had  done  much  to  unsettle  faith  and  loosen  old 
ties.  Doubt  had  even  entered  the  pulpit,  and  the  fashion- 
able skepticism  of  England  and  France  was  infecting  all 
grades  of  society.  There  was  a  crying  need  for  a  Gospel  of 
life  in  the  midst  of  all  this  spiritual  decay,  a  baptism  of  faith 
for  this  age  of  doubt,  a  religion  of  love  and  joy  to  replace 
these  somber  doctrines,  and  withal  an  ecclesiastical  system 
which,  without  prelacy,  should  give  intelligent  and  efficient 
conduct  to  the  campaign  which  was  to  patrol  this  entire  sec- 
tion with  zealous  evangelists. 

Before  1789  New  England  had  been  touched  here  and 
there  by  Methodist  preachers.  Charles  Wesley  had  been 
heard  at  least  once  in  Boston,  sixty  years  before.  The 
great  Whitefield  had  traversed  the  section  many  times,  and 
finally  left  his  bones  there.  Boardman  and  perhaps  other 
Wesleyan  missionaries  had  penetrated  New  England  before 
the  Revolution,  and  William  Black  and  Freeborn  Garrett- 
son  had  found  a  hearing  within  its  borders.  Recently 
the  young  men  who  were  carrying  Methodism  up  the 
Hudson  had  spoken  their  message  at  several  points  east- 


Lee's  First  Sermon  in  New  England  423 

ward  of  the  imaginary  line  which  divides  New  York  from 
Connecticut. 

Up  to  May,  1789,  however,  no  permanent  lodgment  had 
been  effected.  On  the  first  day  of  the  New  York  Conference 
session  of  this  year  Asbttry  wrote  in  his  Journal,  "  New 
England  stretcheth  out  her  hand  to  our  ministry,  and  I  trust 
thousands  will  soon  feel  its  influence."  On  the  last  day, 
when  the  name  of  Jesse  Lee  was  read  out  for  "Stamford,  ' 
the  appointment  was  merely  a  "roving  commission"  to 
evangelize  New  England,  for  the  preacher  designated  had  a 
blank  field  before  him — without  stations,  societies,  or  preach- 
ing places. 

"With  a  prayer  to  God  for  a  blessing,  and  with  an  expec- 
tation of  many  oppositions,"  Jesse  Lee  turned  his  face  east- 
ward and  entered  Connecticut.  On  the  afternoon  of  June 
17 — Bunker  Hill  Dav — he  arrived  in  Norwalk,  and  went  to 
the  house  of  one  Rogers,  where  a  friend  had  endeavored  to 
make  an  appointment  for  him  to  preach.  Hear  his  account 
of  his  first  sermon  -. 

"  Mrs.  Rogers  told  me  her  husband  was  from  home,  and 
was  not  willing  for  me  to  preach  in  his  house.  I  told  her 
we  would  hold  meeting  in  the  road  rather  than  give  any  un- 
easiness. We  proposed  speaking  in  an  old  house  that  stood 
just  by,  but  she  was  not  willing.  I  then  spoke  to  an  old  lady 
about  speaking  in  her  orchard,  but  she  would  not  consent, 
but  said  we  would  tread  the  grass  down.  So  the  other  friend 
went  and  gave  notice  to  some  of  the  people,  and  they  soon 
began  to  collect,  and  we  went  to  the  road,  where  we  had  an 
apple  tree  to  shade  us.  When  the  woman  saw  that  I  was  de- 
termined to  preach  she  said  I  might  preach  in  the  old  house ; 
but  I  told  her  I  thought  it  would  be  better  to  remain  where 
we  were.     So   I  besran  on   the  side  of  the  road  with  about 


424 


American  Methodism 


twenty  hearers.  After  singing  and  praying  I  preached  on 
John  iii,  7,  "  Ye  must  be  born  again."  I  felt  happy  that  we 
were  favored  with  so  comfortable  a  place.  Most  part  of  the 
congregation  paid  particular  attention  to  what  I  said,  and  two 
or  three  women  seemed  to  hang  down  their  heads,  as  if  they 


DRAWN   BY  P.   E     FUNTOFF.  FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH. 

JESSE   LEE'S    FIRST    PREACHING   PLACE,    NORWALK,    CONN. 
The  preacher  probably  stood  on  the  rising  ground  back  of  the  roadside  drinking  fountain. 

understood  something  of  the  new  birth.  After  preaching  I 
told  the  people  that  I  intended  to  be  with  them  again  in  two 
weeks,  and  if  any  of  them  would  open  their  houses  to  receive 
me,  I  should  be  glad,  and  if  they  were  not  willing,  we  would 
meet  at  the  same  place.  Some  of  them  came,  and  desired 
that  I  should  meet  at  the  townhouse  the  next  time ;  so  I 
gave  consent.  Who  knows  but  I  shall  yet  have  a  place  in 
this  town  where  I  may  lay  my  head !  " 

The  preacher  was  now  in  his  thirty-second  year.  He  was 
tall  and  broad-shouldered — a  Phillips  Brooks  or  Daniel  A. 
Goodsell  in  physique.  When  it  became  his  custom  a  little 
later  to  ride  one  horse  and   lead  another,  on   his  preaching 


A  Connecticut  Circuit  425 

tours,  a  rumor  sometimes  ran  ahead  of  him  that  "  a  Methodist 
was  coming  who  weighed  three  hundred  pounds  and  rode 
two  horses."  The  fairness  of  his  skin,  with  kind  gray  eyes 
and  a  broad,  full  face,  conciliated  his  auditors  before  he  ad- 
dressed them,  and  his  voice  was  mellow  and  rich  in  song  or 
sermon.  Old  Father  Ware  said  of  him,  "  He  preached  with 
more  ease  than  any  other  man  I  ever  knew,  and  was,  I  think, 
the  best  everyday  preacher  in  the  connection." 

Lee's  Journal  gives  the  itinerary  of  his  first  fortnight.  On 
the  1 8th  he  was  at  Fairfield.  With  shrewdness  which 
matched  a  Yankee's  he  engaged  the  village  schoolmaster  to 
send  notices  home  by  his  pupils  that  a  Methodist  would 
preach  at  the  courthouse  at  6  o'clock  P.  M.  His  request  for 
permission  to  speak  in  this  public  building  had  met  with  the 
inquiry  whether  he  had  a  liberal  education.  "  I  told  him," 
says  the  amiable  Lee,  "  I  had  nothing  to  boast  of,  though  I 
had  education  enough  to  carry  me  through  the  country." 

Curiosity  attracted  a  handful,  and  the  preacher's  fine  sing- 
ing summoned  thirty  or  forty  more.  The  sermon  was  on 
Rom.  vi,  23,  "The  wages  of  sin  is  death;  but  the  gift  of 
God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,"  the  people 
"  sitting  very  solemn  toward  the  end."  One  hearer  who  was 
impressed  was  the  tavern  keeper's  wife.  When  he  left  her 
roof  she  charged  him  not  a  stiver,  but  recommended  him  to 
go  preach  at  the  house  of  her  pious  sister  a  few  miles  further 
on.  The  sister  proved  to  be  one  of  a  little  company  who  had 
heard  the  Gospel  from  William  Black,  the  Nova  Scotian,  and 
ever  since  had  been  praying  that  they  might  know  the  truth. 
How  they  hung  upon  his  words ! 

On  the  20th,  which  was  Saturday,  Lee  arrived  in  New 
Haven,  one  of  the  State  capitals  and  the  seat  of  Yale  College. 
In   the   heart  of  this  stronghold  of  Congregationalism   the 


426  American  Methodism 

young  Virginian  preached  in  the  courthouse  on  Amos  v,  6, 
"  Seek  ye  the  Lord,  and  ye  shall  live."  President  Stiles,  of 
the  college,  with  many  students  and  a  minister,  came  out  in 
a  rainstorm  to  hear  him.  "  I  spoke,"  he  writes,  "  as  if  I  had 
no  doubt  but  God  would  reach  the  hearts  of  the  hearers  by 
the  discourse.  The  people  paid  great  attention  to  what  I 
said,  and  several  expressed  their  satisfaction." 

From  New  Haven  the  missionary  turned  westward  again, 
reaching  Redding  on  Wednesday.  Here  he  made  the  chance 
acquaintance  of  the  old  minister,  who  questioned  him  seriously 
as  to  his  doctrines,  and  thought  them  unscriptural.  The 
schoolhouse  was  open  to  him,  and  he  preached  "  with  liberty" 
on  Isa.  lv,  6,  "Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found." 
At  Danbury,  his  next  point,  he  spoke  twice,  and  then  passed 
rapdly  southward  through  Ridgefield,  Rockwell,  Canaan,  and 
Middlesex,  to  Norwalk  again,  in  time  to  keep  his  appointment 
of  two  weeks  previous.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  first  round  he 
"  had  some  hope  that  the  Lord  owned  the  word  preached  at 
each  of  these  places." 

On  the  second  round  of  his  circuit  Lee's  reception  was 
more  encouraging.  In  the  house  of  Deacon  Hawley,  of  Strat- 
field,  some  of  his  stolid  hearers  wept  as  he  preached,  and  a 
few  who  were  spiritually  minded  began  to  think  of  joining 
the  Methodists.  In  Stratford,  where  Whitefield's  followers 
had  once  been  active,  the  parish  bell  was  rung  for  him  and  a 
large  company  came  to  hear.  One  gentleman  was  proud  to 
entertain  the  preacher,  and  another  man  took  hold  of  his 
hand  and  walked  with  him  to  the  house.  This  was  on  the 
4th  of  July.  On  the  5th  he  kept  his  appointment  at  New 
Haven,  preaching  by  request  behind  the  high  pulpit  and 
velvet  desk  cushion  of  the  historic  meetinghouse  on  the 
green.     These  novel  surroundings  did  not  long  dampen  his 


Lee  in  the  Beecher  Homestead 


427 


ardor,  and  "toward  the  last  he  had  great  liberty."  The 
sermon  made  its  impression  on  one  heart  at  least,  for  that 
night  a  blacksmith  called  upon  him,  as  he  was  sitting  dis- 
heartened in  his  inn,  and  asked  him  to  lodge  at  his  house 
whenever  he  came  to  New  Haven.  It  was  David  Beecher, 
whose  son  Lyman,  then  a  lad  of  twelve,  was  to  be  one  of  the 
great  divines  of  the  next  generation  and  the  father  of  chil- 


"m  .  g£&>  .  .,<,-  ''.<**,  -jt*- 


DRAWN   BV   P,   £.    PuiNTOFF.  FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH. 

CORNER  STONE  OF  JESSE  LEE  MEMORIAL  CHURCH,  RIDGEFIELD,  CONN. 

dren  even  more  remarkable  than  himself.  Lee  went  with  his 
hospitable  friend.  He  speaks  gratefully  of  Mrs.  Beecher's 
kindness,  and  adds,  by  way  of  explanation,  "but  his  wife  is 
not  a  friend  to  Calvinism." 

On  Tuesday  more  than  a  Sabbath  congregation  gathered 
to  hear  him  in  the  Newtown  meetinghouse.  "  I  spoke  quite 
loud  and  very  plain.  I  felt  happy,  and  my  soul  did  rejoice 
in  the  God  of  my  salvation.     I  spoke  of  the  loss  of  the  soul 


428  American  Methodism 

and  the  torments  of  the  damned  for  some  time ;  I  did  not 
give  them  velvet-mouth  preaching,  though  I  had  a  large 
velvet  cushion  under  my  hands."  The  next  day  at  Redding 
the  minister  tried  to  induce  the  evangelist  to  give  a  public 
statement  of  the  doctrines  of  Methodism  instead  of  a  Gospel 
sermon.  But  Lee  was  too  shrewd  to  give  his  opponents  a 
ground  for  argument.  Some  people  here  were  already  against 
him  because  he  preached  "  the  possibility  of  being  suddenly 
changed  from  a  state  of  sin  to  a  state  of  crrace." 

These  first  notes  of  alarm  were  rapidly  taken  up.  He  had 
been  around  his  circuit  but  thrice  when  the  ministers  began 
to  warn  their  flocks  against  strangers,  "  which,"  says  Lee,  "  I 
suppose,  was  one  reason  why  so  many  came."  At  Greenfield 
he  called  on  schoolmaster  Timothy  Dwight,  afterward  the 
celebrated  president  of  Yale.  The  cautious  teacher  invited 
him  to  dinner,  but  declined  to  let  him  preach  in  the  school- 
room. "He  did  not  find  freedom  to  encourage  our  plan  at 
all,"  says  the  itinerant;  "yet  he  said  if  we  came  to  preach 
in  the  place,  he  would  come  to  hear  us,  that  if  there  were 
anything  wrong,  he  might  know  how  to  oppose  it."  At 
other  places  the  pulpit  openly  denounced  the  Methodists,  six 
hundred  of  whom  were  "  going  about  the  country  preaching 
damnable  doctrines  and  picking  men's  pockets."  Yet  even 
in  that  minister's  parish  the  people  heard  Lee  "  with  watery 
eyes,"  and  one  of  the  deacons  scored  the  persecutor  in  the 
public  prints. 

The  minister  at  Fairfield  "had  been  complaining  of  our 
coming,"  said  Lee,  "and,  I  suppose,  will  complain  more." 
"  Are  you  not  come  to  form  a  Methodist  society  here?"  asked 
a  tavern  keeper.  "  I  am  here  to  call  sinners  to  repentance," 
was  the  quick  reply,  "  but  if  the  Lord  blesses  my  labors,  and 
the  people  desire  to  join  us,  I  cannot  forbid  them."    "  But  you 


Headache  and  Heartache 


429 


preach  too  loud,"  protested  another  Fairfield  man  ;  "  it  makes 
the  women's  heads  ache."  "I  hope  God  will  help  me  to 
speak  hereafter  so  as  to  make  their  hearts  ache,"  was  all 
the  concession  the  thundering  preacher  would  make  to  his 
request. 

Nathan  Bangs,  then  a  lad  of  twelve,   remembered  the  stir 
which  Lee's  sermons  made  in   that   quiet  Connecticut  corner, 


•Si.s&Ah* 


x 


DRAWN    8V    P     f      FlinTQFF 


FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH    6v    J.    HARTMANN 


JKSSF.  LEE  MEMORIAL  CHURCH  AND    PARSONAGE,  RIDGEFIELD,  CONN. 
The  society  is  the  tliinl  organized  by  Lee  in  New  England. 

though  his  father  kept  him  beyond  earshot  of  the  fascinating 
heretic.  He  reports  to  us  also  the  over-shrewd  Yankee 
opinion  that  the  vagrant  Methodist  preachers  were  "broken- 
down  Southerners,  too  lazy  to  work,  who  had  taken  to  this 
roving  life  to  earn  a  livelihood." 

Amid  obloquy  like  this  Lee  wrote  to  Ezekiel  Cooper  in 
Maryland:  "  I  feel  as  if  I  were  just  where  God  would  have 
me  to  be.  I  feel  happiness  in  God,  my  constant  Friend, 
though  much  deprived  of  Christian  company.  ...  I  have  a 
pretty  little  two  weeks'  circuit  to  myself,  about  one  hundred 


430  American  Methodism 

and  thirty  miles  in  circumference.  .  .  .  There  are  a  good 
many  churches,  but  it  is  to  be  feared  that  many  of  the 
ministers  are  not  engaged  in  the  work.  ...  I  think  the 
time  is  come  to  favor  New  England,  and  if  I  had  acceptable 
preachers  with  me,  I  believe  we  should  soon  cover  these 
States." 

Nine  weeks  of  daily  preaching  elapsed  without  yielding  a 
single  conversion.  Some  who  had  at  first  been  friendly  were 
taken  in  hand  by  their  ministers  and  came  no  more.  In 
Fairfield  and  Milford  Lee  preached,  round  after  round,  to 
silent  and  thoughtful  congregations,  then  mounted  and  rode 
away  without  an  invitation  to  any  house. 

Yet  even  amid  such  an  atmosphere  he  could  write:  "I 
bless  God  that  he  keeps  my  spirits  up  under  all  my  discourage- 
ments. If  the  Lord  did  not  comfort  me  in  hoping  against 
hope,  or  believing  against  appearances,  I  should  depart  from 
the  work  in  this  part  of  the  world ;  but  I  still  wait  to  see  the 
salvation  of  the  Lord." 

In  September  the  preacher  turned  his  back  on  his  circuit 
for  a  prospecting  trip  to  the  eastward.  In  the  shore  towns 
of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  he  was  well  received  by  the 
Baptists,  "  who  were  lively  in  religion,"  and  who  besought 
him  to  labor  among  them. 

Refreshed  by  this  excursion,  he  plunged  into  his  circuit 
work  again,  and  on  September  26  had  the  great  joy  of  seeing 
the  first  fruits  of  harvest.  The  night  before  he  had  preached 
on  falling  from  grace,  and  after  the  sermon  had  spoken  per- 
sonally like  a  class  leader  to  a  score  of  interested  hearers, 
concluding  by  announcing  that  if  any  were  ready  to  join  the 
Methodists,  he  would  take  their  names.  No  one  responded ; 
but  there  were  heart  searchings  in  some  farmhouses  that 
night,  and  in  the  morning  "  three  women  joined  in  class,  and 


The  First  Class  in   New  England 


431 


appeared  willing  to  bear  the  cross,  and  have  their  names  east 
as  evil  for  the  Lord's  sake." 

Two  months  passed  before  the  little  elass  at  Stratfield  had 
a  fellow  in  New  England,  but  at  Redding,  on  the  third  day 
after  Christmas,  a  man  and  a  woman  joined  the  society  and 
formed  the  second  elass.  "Glory  be  to  God,"  exclaims  the 
faithful  husbandman,  "  that  I  now  begin  to  see  some  fruit  of 


ORAaN   By   J.   P     DAVIS-  FROM   PhOIOGRAPh    By   GEORGE   LANSING  TAYLOR. 

FIRST    TOWNHAI.L,    RIDGEFIELD,    CONN. 
One  of  Jesse  Lee's  first  preaching  places  in  New  England. 

my  labor  in  this  barren  part  of  the  world !  .  .  .  O,  my  God  ! 
favor  this  part  of  thy  vineyard  with  ceaseless  showers  of 
grace." 

The  raw  Virginian  learned  much  during  his  first  half  year 
in  the  North.  He  perceived  the  eagerness  of  the  people  for 
argument  and  their  ready  appreciation  of  intellectual  power. 
He  recognized  that  a  large  element  in  society  was  already  in 
revolt  from  the  dominant  Calvinism  and  ready  to  applaud  its 
assailants.  He  no  longer  shrank  from  preaching  his  "  prin- 
ciples" when  he  found  that  his  ready  wit,   supported  by  a 


432  American  Methodism 

masterly  use  of  those  twin  weapons  of  the  itinerant,  the  Bible 
and  Fletcher's  Checks,  was  more  than  a  match  for  the 
heavy  discourse  of  the  learned  divines  before  a  popular 
tribunal. 

The  substance  of  Calvinism,  he  told  his  hearers,  was  "  the 
sinner  must  repent,  and  he  can't  repent;  and  he  will  go  to 
hell  if  he  don't  repent,"  or,  as  a  lawyer  put  it,  "  You  must 
believe  or  be  damned ;  and  you  can't  believe  if  you  are  to 
be  damned."  For  just  two  hours,  on  one  occasion,  he  ham- 
mered the  doctrine  of  election,  declaring  "that  all  men  were 
called  to  leave  their  sins,  and  with  that  call  power  was  given  to 
obey  it ;  and  that  man  was  called  before  he  was  chosen."  Two 
Calvinist  ministers  sat  impatiently  through  the  service  and 
at  its  close  one  of  them  made  for  the  door,  announcing  that 
he  should  prepare  a  sermon  for  the  next  Sabbath  "to  expose 
the  errors  which  his  people  had  heard." 

All  that  winter,  excepting  one  brief  excursion  to  Hartford, 
Lee  continued  on  his  original  circuit  in  southwestern  Con- 
necticut. Signs  of  hope  were  multiplying ,  the  ministers 
grumbled  and  thundered,  but  the  people  came  and  went  away 
thoughtful,  to  come  again  and  again ;  the  meetinghouses 
were  shut  against  Methodism  now,  but  the  first  preaching- 
house  was  buildinof,  new  societies  were  forming;,  and  the 
single-hearted  itinerant  could  sally  out  into  the  storm  in 
such  a  mood  as  this:  "My  soul  was  transported  with  joy, 
the  snow  falling,  the  wind  blowing,  prayer  ascending,  faith 
increasing,  grace  descending,  heaven  smiling,  and  love 
abounding." 

Some  wag  having  told  a  wandering  tinker  "  that  the  Metho- 
dists were  likely  to  beat  a  hole  through  the  Saybrook  plat- 
form, and  if  he  could  mend  that,"  he  might  get  a  job,  Lee 
remarks,  "I  think  we  shall  soon  get  such  a  hole  in  it  that 


Holes  in  the  Saybrook  Platform 


433 


neither  tinker  nor  minister  will   be  able  to  stop  it  so  as  to 
keep  the  people  from  seeing  its  Haws." 

On  Saturday,  February  2j,  1790,  at  Dantown,  a  friend 
broke  the  welcome  news  to  Lee  that  three  Methodist  preach- 
ers  were  on  their  way  to  help  him.      They  arrived  that  day. 


FROM   *     PMOTOGfiAPM 


TABLE    USED    BY    JESSE    LEE. 

This  extension  table  of  cherry,  owned  by  lchabnd  Taylor,  served 
as  Lee's  pulpit,  church  altar,  and  writing  desk,  at  Limestone, 
Conn.,  January  28,  17^0. 


"I  stood  and  looked  at  them,"  he  says,  "when  I  saw  them 
riding  up,  and  could  say  from  my  heart,  '  Thou  hast  well  done 
that  thou  art  come.'  "  There  had  been  no  repinings  in  his 
cheery  Journal  over  his  lonely  winter,  but  "  no  one  knows," 
he  writes  now,  "  no  one  but  God  and  myself,  what  comfort 
and  joy  I  felt  at  their  arrival.  Surely  the  Lord  has  had 
respect  unto  my  prayers  and  granted  my  request." 

Bangs  tells  us  that  the  arrival  of  these  brethren  so  heart- 


434  American  Methodism 

ened  Lee  that  he  preached  next  day  with  Whitefieldian  fer- 
vor. Some  "cried  aloud  for  mercy,"  a  novelty  which  drove 
others  in  terror  from  the  house,  some  leaping  from  the 
galleries  in  their  haste. 

The  new  preachers  were  Jacob  Brush,  a  Long  Islander, 
who  had  served  for  seven  years  in  the  Middle  States;  Daniel 
Smith,  a  young  Philadelphian,  with  a  rare  gift  for  winning 
his  way  to  the  hearts  of  his  hearers ;  and  George  Roberts, 
who  had  not  yet  preached  a  year.  Brush  died  in  1795  ;  Smith 
married  and  located  in  New  York  city  in  1794;  but  Roberts 
gave  six  years  of  splendid  activity  to  New  England  as 
preacher  and  presiding  elder,  and  after  ten  years  more  of 
successful  ministry  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Balti- 
more, located  in  the  latter  city  as  a  practicing  physician, 
having  exchanged  the  cure  of  souls  for  the  cure  of  bodily  ills. 

The  arrival  of  these  brethren  set  Jesse  Lee  at  liberty  to 
range  more  widely. 


CHAPTER  XLIII 

Attacking-  the  Puritan  Citadel 

Lee's  Second  Circuit.— Up  the  Connecticut.— On  to  Boston.  — Un- 
der the  Great  Elm. — Conference  of  1790. — A  Foothold  at 
Lynn.— Travel  and  Study.— Asburv  in  New  England.— Con- 
ference at  Lynn. 

ON  Christmas  Eve  in  1789  Jesse  Lee  had  prayed:  "O 
Lord,  send  more  laborers  into  this  part  of  thy  vine- 
yard. I  love  to  break  up  new  ground,  and  hunt 
the  lost  souls  in  New  England,  though  it  is  hard  work." 
The  reinforcements  came  and  he  took  prompt  advantage  of 
them.  Leaving  Brush  to  travel  the  circuit,  he  set  out  with 
young  Smith  for  new  conquests.  They  preached  to  weeping 
throngs  from  the  statehouse  steps  at  Hartford,  where  Lee 
had  already  been  heard,  and  passing  in  high  spirits  from 
town  to  town,  they  marked  out  a  second  two  weeks'  circuit  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  which,  besides  country  ap- 
pointments, embraced  New  Haven,  Hartford,  and  six  other 
considerable  places. 

"I  am  in  hopes,"  said  Lee  to  a  critic,  "that  we  shall 
spread  all  over  New  England  in  a  little  time,"  and  he  wrote 
to  Asbury  to  send  three  new  preachers  without  delay. 

Lee's  Journal  abounds  in  suggestive  touches.     When  he 

435 


436 


American  Methodism 


preached  at  Middlefield  on  God's  willingness  to  save  all  man- 
kind his  auditors  stared  in  blank  amazement.  "I  suppose 
they  could  not  believe  it  all,"  he  says;  "for  many  in  these 
parts  think  Christ  only  died  for  a  few  ;  I  hope  the  truth  will 
hew  down  Agag."     A  chance  acquaintance  on  the  road  told 


OLD    STATEHOUSE,  HARTFORD,  CONN. 
One  of  Lee's  early  preaching  places  in  New  England. 

him  of  the  strange  Southern  preachers  who  had  spoken  the 
Monday  previous  at  the  Hartford  Statehouse.  "Ah,"  said  the 
stranger,  "  these  preachers  speak  louder  than  our  ministers, 
and  raise  their  heads  and  spread  their  hands,  and  halloo 
as  though  they  were  going  to  frighten  the  people." 

"It  would  be  well  if  they  could  frighten  the  people  out 
of  their  sins,"  retorted  the  preacher,  without  revealing  his 
identity. 

Following  the  Connecticut  valley,  Lee  now  crossed  Massa- 
chusetts and  set  foot  in  the  lower  towns  of  Vermont  and  New 
Hampshire,  returning  before  the  end  of  April.  The  experi- 
ence was  not  encouraging;.  His  hearers  wanted  to  discuss 
points  of  doctrine,  and  the  old  question  of  the  preacher's  edu- 
cation came  up  again.  A  Baptist  minister  asked  it.  "I  told 
him,"  says  Lee,  with  affected  frankness,  "  that  I  could  speak 
the  English  language,  but  was  not  perfect  in  it."     "When  the 


Lee's   Linguistics  437 

man  explained  that  he  meant  speaking  the  different  lan- 
guages, Lee  told  him  that  he  "  could  talk  a  little  High 
1  hitch."  Then  he  broke  into  a  doctrinal  discussion,  in  which 
he  lost  manners  and  temper.  On  another  occasion  he  is  said 
to  have  baffled  a  similar  inquiry  with  an  outburst  of  this  same 
North  Carolina  German,  which  was  mistaken  for  Hebrew  by 
his  hearers ! 

Revisiting  his  first  circuit  in  May,  the  people  received  him 
like  one  of  their  own  kinsmen,  and  so  rejoiced  his  heart  that 
he  "  determined  to  go  on  and  break  up  more  New  England 
ground  if  possible,  and  then  leave  it  for  better  and  abler 
brethren  to  cultivate."  Boston  was  now  his  goal,  and  in 
June,  1790,  just  a  year  after  entering  New  England,  he  set 
out.  Passing  through  the  towns  of  southern  Connecticut, 
and  preaching  as  he  went  in  the  dwellings  and  meeting- 
houses of  the  liberal  Rhode  Islanders,  he  came  to  Providence. 

As  Lee  rode  this  last  stage  of  his  journey  to  the  Puritan 
capital,  praying  that  if  his  errand  were  of  God  the  hearts  and 
homes  of  the  people  might  be  open  to  him,  one  met  him  on 
the  way,  as  though  an  angel  of  the  Lord.  It  was  no  other 
than  Freeborn  Garrettson,  accompanied  by  his  black  servant 
Harry  Hosier.  Garrettson  had  passed  through  Boston  more 
than  once,  on  his  way  to  and  from  Nova  Scotia,  and  now,  as 
presiding  elder  of  the  Northern  District,  including  New  York 
and  New  England,  he  was  returning  from  a  midsummer  tour 
of  the  whitening  harvest  field,  so  bare  of  laborers.  He  had 
preached  in  Boston  and  had  arranged  a  preaching  place  for 
Lee  when  he  should  arrive. 

The  opening  which  the  presiding  elder  thought  he  had 
secured  for  his  preacher  closed  up  behind  him,  and  when 
Lee  arrived,  on  July  9,  1790,  no  audience  room,  either  public 
or   private,  was   to   be   had   in    that   city  of  twenty  thousand 


438  American  Methodism 

souls.  Men  who  had  lionized  Whitefield,  and  had  given 
curious  attention  to  the  novel  doctrines  of  Black,  Garrettson, 
and  other  transient  preachers  of  Methodism,  turned  the  cold 
shoulder  upon  the  resolute  missionary  who  now  came  to 
establish  societies  and  build  up  a  church. 

Shut  out  of  doors,  Lee  took  to  the  historic  Common.  Un- 
der "The  Great  Elm,"  which  was  old  when  the  town  was 
settled,  and  had  been  a  rallying  point  for  many  a  notable 
assemblage,  the  indomitable  preacher  took  his  stand  at  6 
r.  M.  on  Sunday,  July  11,  1789,  with  one  or  two  kindly 
sympathizers  who  had  brought  a  deal  table  for  a  pulpit.  To 
gather  hearers  the  preacher  sang  a  hymn.  Saunterers 
stopped  to  listen  to  the  rich  voice,  and  caught  the  invitation 
of  the  words  -. 

Come,  humble  sinner,  in  whose  breast 

A  thousand  thoughts  revolve, 
Come,  with  your  guilt  and  tears  oppressed, 

And  make  this  last  resolve  : 

I'll  go  to  Jesus,  though  my  sin 

Like  mountains  round  me  close ; 
I  know  his  courts,  I'll  enter  in, 

Whatever  may  oppose. 

Falling  on  his  knees,  he  prayed  with  a  loud  voice,  and  then 
delivered  an  impassioned  sermon  to  a  congregation  which 
soon  became  an  attentive  throng.  At  its  close  the  preacher 
said:  "  I  am  a  stranger.  I  have  given  you  the  Gospel  as  it 
has  been  given  to  me.  If  any  of  this  company  will  come 
forward  and  take  my  hand,  and  by  so  doing  pledge  himself 
to  meet  me  in  heaven,  I  will  thank  God."  The  multitude 
went  about  their  business  and  left  the  preacher  standing  alone 
beside  his  table — all  except  one  little  girl,  who  slipped  her 
hand  timidly  into  his  and  whispered,  "111  meet  you  in  heaven, 
Mr.  Lee;"  and  years  afterward  on  her  dying  bed,  on  the  very 


On  Boston   Common 


439 


threshold  of  that  blessed  reunion,  the  faithful  sister  told  this 
touching  story  to  her  minister. 

After  a  week's  preaching  tour  of  the  north  shore  fishing 
towns  as  far  as  Portsmouth,  Lee  returned  to  Boston.  He  had 
no  trouble  in  finding  hearers  now,  and,  though  he  spoke 
several  times,  in  private  houses  and  a  disused  meetinghouse, 


FROM    THE   COPPERPLATE    IN    THE    BOSTON    PUBLIC   LIBR 


BOSTON    COMMON    AND    THE    OLD    ELM,     1 79O. 

The  drawing  represents  the  city  of  Boston  viewed  from  Beacon  Hill,  west  of  the  Massachusetts  State- 
house.     It  was  made  within  a  few  months  of  Jesse  Lee's  visit. 

the  Common  alone  sufficed  to  accommodate  his  vast  Sun- 
day throng.  Before  the  end  of  July  he  was  back  again  in 
Connecticut. 

In  October  the  Conference  met  in  New  York  city,  and 
Jesse  Lee  attended  to  give  an  account  of  his  stewardship. 
He  had  traveled  several  thousand  miles  and  preached  in  six 
States,  visiting  most  of  the  large  towns  of  New  England. 
Bishop  As  bury  applauded  his  success,  ordained  him  elder, 
using  the  simple  forms  which  the  plain  itinerant  preferred, 


440  American  Methodism 

and  stationed  him  with  Daniel  Smith  at  Boston.  The  other 
appointments  for  New  England  were :  Fairfield  (formerly 
Stamford),  John  Bloodgood ;  New  Haven,  John  Lee  (Jesse's 
gentler  brother) ;  Hartford,  Nathaniel  B.  Mills.  The  Litch- 
field Circuit,  including  some  New  York  appointments,  was 
served  from  Garrettson's  district  by  Samuel  Wigton  and 
Henry  Christie. 

Saddened  and  distracted  by  the  tidings  of  his  saintly 
mother's  death,  Lee  reluctantly  turned  again  to  his  work. 
He  was  no  longer  a  lay  evangelist,  but  a  Gospel  minister  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  as  he  traversed  Con- 
necticut he  administered  the  sacraments  for  the  first  time. 
He  found  Boston  in  November  colder,  spiritually,  than  Bos- 
ton in  July.  The  east  wind  and  continued  rains  kept  him 
from  his  cathedral  of  the  elm,  and  after  trying  for  a  month 
by  "every  prudent  means"  to  procure  a  place  for  regular 
preaching  he  gave  up  Boston  and  went  to  Lynn,  twelve 
miles  distant.  He  was  warmly  received  by  Benjamin  John- 
son, at  whose  house,  on  December  14,  he  preached  with  great 
freedom,  maintaining  with  the  fervor  of  one  long  silenced 
the  doctrine  that  Christ  died  for  all  men.  This  visit  resulted 
in  the  first  Methodist  society  in  Massachusetts,  organized  at 
Lynn  on  February  20,  1 79 1 ,  with  eight  members — Benja- 
min Johnson  and  Enoch  Mudge,  and  their  wives,  also  Mary 
Lewis,  Hannah  Leigh,  Ruth  Johnson,  and  Deborah  Mansfield. 
In  June  the  society  was  strong  enough  to  erect  a  modest 
preachinghouse,  which  was  dedicated  on  June  26.  Though  he 
traveled  faithfully  through  his  Essex  County  Circuit,  Lee  had 
but  one  society  and  fifty-eight  members  to  report  to  Confer- 
ence. After  a  fresh  repulse  at  Boston  he  began  to  think  the 
fault  lay  in  himself.  "  I  am  still  led  to  hope,"  he  wrote  in 
April,  "  that  the  Lord  will  open  the  hearts  of  these  people  to 


Breaking  Up  Ground 


441 


attend  the  word  spoken   by  the  Methodists,  but  let  the  Lord 
work  by  whom  he  will!" 

Conference  met  in  New  York  in  June  and  returned  Lee 
as  presiding-  elder,  with  eleven  men  and  seven  circuits: 
Kingston,  in  Canada,  Litchfield.  Fairfield,  Middlefield,  and 
Hartford,  in  Connecticut,  and 
Stockbridge  and  Lynn,  at  the 
two  ends  of  Massachusetts. 
He  devoted  the  first  half  of 
his  third  year  in  Xew  Eng- 
land to  the  Lynn  Circuit, 
making  an  excursion  into 
Rhode  Island  in  November 
and  undertaking  a  laborious 
tour  of  the  Connecticut 
circuits  in  the  spring  of 
1792,  during  which  he  rode 
five  hundred  and  seventeen 
miles  in  thirty-three  days, 
and  preached  forty  sermons. 
During  the  Conference  year 
he  preached  three  hundred 
and  twenty-one  times.  That 
he  found  time  for  study  in 
the  midst  of  such  activity  is  a 
marvel,  yet  he  has  left  a  list  of  the  books  he  read  within  this 
period  .  the  Xew  Testament  (twice),  two  volumes  of  Fletcher, 
Preacher's  Experience,  Baxter's  Saint's  Rest,  Barclay's 
Apology,  Sellon's  Answer  to  Coles,  John  Wesley's  Funeral 
Sermon,  by  Whitehead,  a.  Kempis's  The  Christian's  Pattern, 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Rowe's  Devout  Exercises,  A  View  of  Re- 
ligion, by  Hannah  Adams,   Garrettson's  Journal,  Sweeting's 


FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH. 


REV.    EXOCH    MUDGE. 

Fir-t  New  Englaiider  who  was  licensed  as  a 
Methodist  preacher. 


442  American  Methodism 

Narrative,  Marks  of  a  Work  of  God,  by  Edwards;  Hammet's 
Appeal,  three  volumes  of  Wesley's  Notes,  Aristotle,  and  an 
election  sermon  by  David  Tappan — a  total  of -five  thousand 
four  hundred  and  thirty-four  pages.  Besides  his  own  six 
sermons  a  week  he  had  heard  seventy-four  preached  by  other 
ministers. 

In  the  summer  of  1791  Bishop  Asbury  made  an  eight 
weeks'  tour  of  New  England.  He  was  already  one  of  the 
noted  men  of  the  country,  received  with  high  respect 
throughout  the  Middle  and  Southern  States  and  not  unknown 
in  the  new  country  beyond  the  mountains.  In  New  England 
he  felt  like  a  foreigner,  and  received  a  foreigner's  treatment. 
The  thickly  settled  country,  houses  always  in  sight  and 
steepled  churches  visible  from  every  Connecticut  hilltop, 
elicited  his  comment  that  "there  had  been  religion  in  this 
country  once,  and  I  apprehend  there  is  a  little  in  form  and 
theory  left;  but  I  fear  they  are  now  spiritually  dead,  and  am 
persuaded  that  family  and  private  prayer  is  very  little  prac- 
ticed." Lee's  feeble  societies  had  a  warm  welcome  for  the 
superintendent,  but  elsewhere  he  had  scant  respect.  In  the 
townhall  of  Stratford,  where  he  preached,  "some  smiled, 
some  laughed,  some  swore,  some  prayed,  some  wept.  Had 
it  been  a  house  of  our  own,"  he  wrote,  "  I  should  not  have 
been  surprised  to  see  the  windows  broken."  The  New 
Haven  divines  were  cold  and  distant.  President  Stiles  and 
others  heard  his  sermon,  but  no  one  had  a  hand  for  the 
preacher.  With  the  interests  of  the  Methodist  schools  on  his 
heart,  Asbury  attended  prayers  in  Yale  College  chapel;  all 
was  gravity  and  decorum,  but  no  one  had  the  courtesy  to 
speak  to  this  representative  of  more  than  sixty  thousand 
Christians.  Of  course  he  felt  the  slight,  but  his  remark  is 
kindly.    "Should   Cokesbury  or  Baltimore  ever   furnish  the 


Asbury  in  New  England 


443 


opportunity,  I,  in   my  turn,  will    requite   their   behavior   by 
treating  them  as  friends,  brethren,  and  gentlemen." 

The  whole  journey  to  Boston  was  a  novel  and  unpleasant 
experience  for  him.  He  \vix>te :  "  I  am  unknown,  and  have 
small  congregations,  to  which  I  may  add  a  jar  in  sentiment, 
but  I  do  not  dispute  ■  '  and  again,  "  I  feel  that  I  am  not  among 
my  own  people,  though   I  believe  there  are  some  who  feai 


FROM  A  WOODCUT   Or    1763. 

VALE  COLLEGE.      THE   CHAPEL   AND   CONNECTICUT   HALL. 
Showing  their  appearance  at  the  time  of  Asbury's  first  visit. 

God."  Even  in  Boston  only  twenty  or  thirty  came  to  hear 
his  opening  sermon,  though  a  great  room  had  been  provided. 
The  title  of  "  Bishop"  was  still  an  offense  in  the  nostrils  of 
the  sons  of  the  Puritans,  and  this  plain  apostle  had  to  suffer. 
He  suspected  that  "those  who  professed  friendship  for  us 
had  been  ashamed "  to  spread  the  notice  of  the  sermon. 
More  came  the  next  evening,  but  the  "sinners  in  the  streets" 
were  annoyingly  boisterous,  "owing,   perhaps,  to  the  loud- 


444 


American  Methodism 


ness  of  my  voice."  He  had  no  liberty,  and  determined  to 
quit  a  place  so  inhospitable.  "  When  a  stranger  in  Charles- 
ton, wicked  Charleston,"  he  exclaims,  "  I  was  kindly  invited 
to  eat  and  drink  by  many — here  by  none." 

A  year  later  Lee  joined  a  few  poor  people  in  society  in 
Boston,  the  first  in  the  city,  on  July  13,   1792.      Lynn,  with 


FROM   A  PHOTOGRAPH. 


THE   NEW    ENGLAND    METHODIST   CENTENARY   GATHERING,   1 866. 

This  group  of  preachers  and  laymen  was  photographed  on  Boston  Common,  with  the  old  elm  in 

the  background. 


its  generous  people,  flourishing  society,  and  neat  chapel,  was 
a  welcome  relief  from  the  buffetings  of  the  capital  city.  From 
this  place,  he  prophesied,  "  shall  the  light  of  Methodism  and 
truth  radiate  through  the  State."  Here,  in  August,  1792,  the 
bishop  held  the  first  Methodist  Conference  in  New  England. 
Eight  or  nine  preachers  attended,  among  them  the  Rev, 
Hope  Hull,  a  young  man  from  Savannah,  of  remarkable  elo- 
quence.     The  daily  preaching,  the  spirited  exhortations,  the 


From  Weakness  to  Strength  445 

joyous  hymns,  the  bishop's  ordination  sermon,  and  the  love 

feast  on  the  last  day  of  the  session  marked  a  religious  occa- 
sion entirely  new  in  the  calendar  of  Puritan  festivals.  The 
membership  reported  for  New  England  already  approached 
a  thousand.  The  district  was  divided,  Brush  presiding-  in 
Connecticut,  Lee  in  the  East,  while  the  Berkshire  appoint- 
ments were  supplied  from  Garrettson's  Albany  District.  As- 
bury  returned  to  the  South  still  puzzled  over  the  New 
England  character.  "Never  have  I  seen  any  people  who 
could  talk  so  long,  so  correctly,  and  so  seriously  about  trifles," 
said  this  single-hearted  evangelist,  to  whom  all  things  were 
trifling  in  comparison  with  the  momentous  subject  of  a  soul's 
relation  to  God.  As  he  considered  what  he  had  seen  and 
felt  he  ventured  a  prophecy  which  long  since  came  to  fulfill- 
ment:  "  I  am  led  to  think  that  the  Eastern  Church  will  find 
this  saying  hold  true  in  the  case  of  the  Methodists,  namely, 
'  I  will  provoke  you  to  jealousy  by  a  people  that  were  no 
people,  and  by  a  foolish  nation  will  I  anger  you.'  " 

The  holding  of  the  Conference  at  Lynn  in  1792  marks  the 
establishment  of  Methodism  in  New  England.  Much  re- 
mained to  be  done  by  Lee  and  his  zealous  associates  and 
successors,  but  a  permanent  foothold  had  been  gained.  The 
victory  must  not  be  measured  by  the  few  feeble  societies  or 
the  handful  of  preachers  reported  to  that  pioneer  Conference 
in  the  humble  chapel.  The  small  things  of  that  day  were 
the  presage  of  great  ones.  At  the  end  of  a  century,  1890, 
the  number  of  Methodist  churches  in  New  England  was 
1,369;  their  membership  aggregated  146,570.  In  Maine, 
Vermont,  and  Rhode  Island  the  Methodist  churches  outnum- 
bered those  of  the  Congregational  order.  The  influence  of 
Methodism  upon  New  England  is  beyond  the  expression  of 
mere  statistics,  however  imposing.      The  transforming  work 


446 


American   Methodism 


of  Methodists  has  been  thus  stated  by  the  President  W.  F.  War- 
ren :  "Under  the  old  school  of  Calvinism  the  ideals  of  life  had 
declined ;  education  grew  narrow  and  barren ,  art  was  forgot- 
ten ,  the  knowledge  of  music  almost  entirely  died  out ;  men 
came  to  believe  themselves  possessed  of  devils  and  dominated 
by  witches.  .  .  .  No  wonder  that  the  devout  Jonathan  Edwards 
was  ejected  from  his  pulpit  by  his  own  parishioners,  and  that 
the  original  Puritan  Churches  were  secularized  to  the  point 


DH-W*    BT    P     £ 


rou  a  picture  e£LO-Gi*G 


FIRST    METHODIST    PREACH1NGHOUSE    IN    BOSTON. 


of  adopting  for  their  self-preservation  the  notorious  Halfway 
Covenant ! "  The  astonishing  doctrines  of  which  Lee  was 
the  herald  acted  like  an  inspiration.  "  He  broke  the  spell 
which  rested  like  a  nightmare  upon  the  spirit  of  every  New 
England  child.  He  assured  them  then  that  not  one  '  repro- 
bate'or  'preterite'  of  the  old  Calvinistic  description  ever 
existed.  ...  He  claimed  that  God's  impartial  love  was  over 
all  men,  that  Christ  had  died  for  all,  that  the  mission  of  the 


The  Revival  of  the  Old  Churches  447 

Comforter  was  to  all.  .  .  .  The  Church  ceased  to  depend 
upon  the  taxgatherer  .  .  .  and  began  to  remember  that  she 
•was  intended  to  conquer  and  transform  the  world.  .V  new 
spirit  came  over  the  whole  realm  of  education.  The  public 
schools,  originally  intended  for  the  elect  boys  only,  were 
broadened  into  schools  for  both  sexes.  .  .  .  Art  and  music 
were  welcomed  back  to  the  haunts  of  Christian  men." 


CHAPTER   XL1V 

Progress  Southward 

The  South  the  Nursery  of  Methodism.  —  North  Carolina.— 
O'Kelly  in  Danger. —  Incidents  of  Pioneering.  —  Mistress 
.Morris's  Fits.— An  Original.— South  Carolina  Entered. 

AMERICAN  Methodism  may  have  been  cradled  in 
New  York.  Certainly  it  reached  maturity  soon- 
est under  Southern  skies.  For  a  generation  after 
Embury's  lips  were  unsealed  the  great  majority  of  societies 
and  members  were  to  be  found  below  the  famous  line  of 
Mason  and  Dixon.  Even  the  men  whose  courage,  energy, 
and  perseverance  opened  New  England  and  the  Hudson  val- 
ley to  Methodism  were  the  Lees,  Garrettsons,  Coopers,  Hick- 
sons,  and  Pickerings  of  Maryland  and  Virginia. 

These  two  great  States  were  nurseries  of  the  Methodist 
prophets,  and  from  them  also  went  out  the  evangelists  who 
carried  "scriptural  holiness"  to  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  on 
the  south  and  to  the  vast  regions  beyond  the  mountains  soon 
to  be  the  noble  States  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky. 

North  Carolina  Methodism  dates  its  rise  from  the  Baltimore 
Conference  of  May  21,  1776,  which  organized  the  "  Carolina  " 
Circuit,  and  manned  it  with  three  preachers- -Edward  Drom- 
goole,  Francis  Poythress,  and  Isham  Tatum.      But  there  were 


The   North  Carolina  Pioneers  449 

already  nearly  seven  hundred  Methodists  within  its  vague 
boundaries.  Probably  Robert  Williams  and  other  itinerants 
in  the  southern  counties  of  Virginia  had'been  preaching  here 
for  three  years;  Joseph  Pilmoor,  on  the  way  to  and  from 
Charleston  early  in  1773,  had  found  willing  hearers  in  many 
towns,  had  addressed  a  largfe  assembly  in  the  courthouse  at 
Wilmington,  and  had  noted  hopefully  of  Newberne,  "People 
of  fashion  think  it  a  privilege  to  hear  the  Gospel." 

In  1776  the  preachers  began  to  come  regularly  to  the  east- 
ern part  of  North  Carolina,  and  at  the  same  time  to  enter  the 
counties  further  west  from  the  Pittsylvania  Circuit  of  Virginia. 
Other  circuits  were  rapidly  organized — Roanoke,  New  Hope, 
Tar  River,  Yadkin,  Guilford,  Caswell,  Pasquetank,  Salisbury, 
Bertie,  and  other  places,  until  in  1784  nearly  one  fourth  of 
the  Methodist  preachers  and  members  in  America  were  within 
"the  old  North  State."  Among  the  men  who  had  wielded 
the  sickle  in  this  harvest  were  John  Dickins,  LeRoy  Cole, 
John  Major,  Richard  Ivey,  Edward  Dromgoole,  IshamTatum, 
Francis  Poythress,  Philip  Bruce,  Jesse  Lee,  Beverly  Allen, 
and  other  successful  evangelists.  Within  eight  years  they 
and  their  fellow-laborers  had  extended  the  work  into  nearly 
every  county  from  the  ocean  to  the  mountains,  and  the  twelve 
circuits  which  they  manned  returned  four  thousand  members. 

Bladen  Circuit,  in  the  southeastern  part  of  the  State,  was 
formed  in  1787  by  Daniel  Coombs.  Beverly  Allen  and  James 
O'Kelly  had  pioneered  the  region  as  early  as  1779.  On  one 
of  his  visits  the  latter  preacher  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  band 
of  Tories,  -who  tied  him  up  to  a  peach  tree.  A  party  of 
Whigs  coming  up  just  then,  a  smart  skirmish  ensued,  O'Kelly 
being  exposed  to  the  fire  of  both  parties,  until  the  arrival  of 
reinforcements  under  Colonel  Slingsby,  the  noted  partisan, 
who  put   the  Whigs  to   flight.      The  colonel  recognized  the 


450  American  Methodism 

Methodist,  and  asked  him  to  preach  to  his  men.  O'Kelly 
complied,  the  colonel  reverently  doffing  his   hat  meanwhile. 

Several  interesting-  incidents,  and  at  least  one  notable  char- 
acter, are  connected  with  the  advance  of  Methodism  into  the 
southwestern  counties.  Several  Methodist  families  settled  in 
Lincoln  County  in  1788.  On  their  journey  together  from 
Virginia  these  godly  folk  had  daily  prayer  and  stopped  at 
intervals  for  religious  meetings,  some  of  which  were  marked 
by  deep  emotion.  A  planter  attracted  by  their  hymns  and 
strange  outcry  was  himself  convicted  and  converted.  Arrived 
in  their  new  homes,  they  astounded  their  placid  German 
neighbors  by  their  shoutings.  "  Your  mother  has  a  fit;  she 
will  die,"  said  one  to  Nancy  Morris,  whose  mother  could  not 
restrain  her  joy  when  a  Methodist  local  preacher  held  forth 
in  the  Lutheran  meetinghouse.  "  O  no,"  was  the  daughter's 
calm  reply,  "  mother  is  subject  to  these  fits  ;  she  will  get  over 
it."  The  daughter  subsequently  married  the  Rev.  Daniel 
Asbury,  who  was  sent  in  1789  with  young  Enoch  George 
(afterward  bishop)  to  form  the  Lincoln  Circuit  in  this  region. 

Daniel  Asbury  had  been  trained  for  the  ministry  in  a  rough 
school.  A  native  of  Virginia,  he  had  early  crossed  the 
mountains  and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  was  captured  by  the 
Indians  and  adopted  into  the  Shawnee  tribe.  Five  years 
later  he  returned  home  a  seasoned  woodsman  and  recklessly 
sinful.  When  reclaimed  under  Methodist  preaching-  he  be- 
came one  of  the  most  effective  of  frontier  preachers.  After 
two  years  in  Virginia  the  bishop  sent  him  to  the  French 
Broad  Mission,  in  1788,  where  among  outlaws  and  Indians  he 
needed  all  his  hardihood,  but  faced  without  flinching  the 
hardships  of  that  "  Laud  of  the  Sky."  Uncouth  of  speech, 
reckless  of  grammar  and  rhetoric,  reading  no  books  but  the 
Book,  the   Methodist   classics,  and  the  human  heart,  he  was 


Daniel  Asbury 


451 


nevertheless  a  preacher  to  whom  men  of  intellect  must  listen 
— such  was  his  knowledge  of  Scripture  and  the  directness, 
sincerity,  and  force  of  his  address.  He  married  Nancy 
Morris,  and  devoted  the  greater  part  of  his  long  life  to 
preaching  in   the  Carolinas  and  Georgia.      He  died  in    1825, 


0M   A   pnOTOGH 


THE    KAPIDS   OF   THE    FRENCH    BROAD. 

and  was  buried  in  the  yard  of  Rehoboth  Church,  the  first 
which  was  built  by  the  Methodists  in  North  Carolina  west  of 
the  Catawba. 

South  Carolina  Methodism  is  younger  by  a  decade  than 
that  of  its  sister  State.  Both  John  and  Charles  Wesley  had 
visited  Charleston  during  their  brief  connection  with  Ogle- 
thorpe's colony  in  Georgia,  and  John  had  preached  in  St. 
Philip's  Church,  the  pride  of  the  English  settlers.  White- 
field  crossed  and  recrossed  the  State  in  his  visits  to  his  Orphan 
House  at  Ebenezer,  near  Savannah,  and  uttered  his  flaming 
evangel  in  Charleston. 

In  1773  came  Joseph  Pilmoor,  his  horse  and  chaise  lum- 
bering through   dreary  pine  barrens  and   sandy  wastes,  and 


452  American  Methodism 

beaten  by  such  storms  as  made  the  journey  a  distressful 
memory.  On  Friday  evening,  January  22,  he  preached  the 
first  Methodist  sermon  in  Charleston  to  a  small  but  serious 
company.  Though  expecting-  ill  treatment,  he  was  well  re- 
ceived, and  had  good  congregations  so  long  as  he  stayed  in 
town.  "A  vast  multitude"  heard  his  farewell  sermon,  on 
March  8,  1773,  and  though  he  had  entered  the  place  a  stran- 
ger, many  came  next  morning  to  take  leave  of  him  and 
heartily  wish  him  success. 

Lack  of  men  and  the  presence  of  armies  prevented  the 
Methodists  from  following  up  the  beginning  made  by  Pilmoor 
until  the  Christmas  Conference  of  1 784—1 785 .  At  that  time 
Asbury  determined  upon  a  forward  movement  in  the  South, 
and  selected  John  Tunnell,  Henry  Willis,  Beverly  Allen, 
and  Woolman  Hickson  to  lead  the  advance.  They  were  four 
evangelists  of  uncommon  power.  Tunnell  had  been  itin- 
erating since  1777,  though  of  frail  physique,  and  he  was  a 
most  heavenly  minded  man  and  persuasive  preacher.  In 
1787  he  was  chosen  to  head  the  pioneer  band  who  were  to 
found  Methodism  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  here  he  died 
of  consumption,  in  July,  1790 — "a  great  saint,"  as  Asbury 
declared.  Henry  Willis  was  a  choice  spirit.  He  was  a  Vir- 
ginian who  had  joined  Conference  with  Tunnell.  His  slight 
figure  and  intelligent  countenance  became  well  known 
throughout  the  connection,  for  he  was  a  dear  friend  of  Bishop 
Asbury,  and  the  first  man  ordained  by  him.  He  died  in 
1808,  and  over  his  grave  the  bishop  sighed,  "  Ah,  when  shall 
I  look  upon  thy  like  again?" 

Allen's  was  a  chequered  career.  Few  excelled  him  in 
brilliancy  of  natural  gifts.  He  won  friends  easily  and  had 
great  success  until  1792,  when  he  was  expelled  from  the 
Conference  and  fled  from  justice  into  Kentucky.     Years  aftei-- 


Beverly  Allen  and  Woolman  Hickson  453 

ward  Peter  Cartwright  found  him  there,  as  a  physician,  still 
cherishing  his  affection  for  the  Church  of  his  first  love. 
Hickson  was  another  of  those  eager  youths  who  sacrificed 
their  lives  to  their  zeal  for  the  cause.  He  had  been  in  the 
work  but  three  years,  and  lived  only  until  1788.  In  the 
previous  year,  when  stationed  at  New  York,  he  preached  the 
sermon  which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the  first  Methodist 
class  in  Brooklyn,  under  the  leadership  of  Nicholas  Snethen. 


CHAPTER  XLV 
Still  Facing  the  South 

Asbury  Entering  South  Carolina.  —  First  Methodist  Church  in 
Charleston.— Verily  a  Conference  Also. — In  Georgia,  on  the 
Track  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley. 

THE  bishop  presided  in  person  at  the  inauguration  of 
the  work  of  carrying  Methodism  southward.  With 
Willis  and  Jesse  Lee  he  entered  South  Carolina  at 
Cheraw,  on  February  17,  1785,  and  on  the  23d  was  at 
Georgetown.  Here  a  Mr.  Wayne,  a  cousin  of  "Mad  An- 
thony," befriended  the  Methodists,  and  gave  them  letters  to 
Mr.  Wells,  a  merchant  of  Charleston,  who  received  them 
kindly  and  to  the  spiritual  awakening  of  himself  and  his 
wife.  The  city  seemed  to  be  under  "a  great  dearth  of  re- 
ligion," and  when  the  bishop  and  Lee  returned  to  the  North 
a  fortnight  later  they  "left  some  under  gracious  impressions." 
The  labors  of  the  first  year  bore  such  fruit  that  in  1786  the 
Peedee  Circuit — from  Georgetown,  S.  C,  to  within  ten  miles 
of  Salisbury,  N.  C. — had  a  membership  of  two  hundred  and 
eighty-five  whites  and  ten  colored ;  the  Santee  Circuit,  with 
seventy-five  in  society,  included  the  territory  on  either  side 
of  the  Santee  and  Wateree  Rivers  from  Nelson's  Ferry  to 

Providence ;  and  the  Broad  River  Circuit,  which  commenced 

454 


"  No  Small  Comfort"  455 

in  the  Dutch  Fork  above  Columbia  and  extended  to  Pacolet 
Springs,  had  two  hundred  white  and  ten  colored.  These 
extensive  circuits  covered  the  settled  portion  of  the  State. 

When  Asbury  rode  toward  Charleston  on  his  second  visit, 
in  January,  1786,  it  was  "no  small  comfort"  to  him  to  see 
the  frame  of  a  Methodist  church  in  process  of  erection.  In 
the  city  itself  the  Methodists  were  about  to  build.  The 
Conference  was  held  this  year,  as  in  1785,  in  North  Carolina. 
Isaac  Smith  was  one  of  the  new  men  assigned  to  South  Caro- 
lina. He  was  a  Virginian,  and  a  scarred  war  veteran,  who 
lived  to  be  honored  as  one  of  the  fathers  of  the  Church.  He 
died  in  1834,  "  most  honored  and  beloved."  His  preaching 
and  prayers  were  accompanied  with  that  strange  power  that 
sometimes  felled  men  to  the  earth.  His  sermons  were  brief 
and  pointed,  and  his  frank  and  manly  address  helped  him  to 
win  his  way  among  the  roughest  of  men.  The  Edisto  Cir- 
cuit, founded  by  Smith  and  Willis,  reported  two  hundred  and 
forty  whites  and  four  colored  at  the  Conference  of  1787. 

Other  new  men  were  Hope  Hull,  "young,  but  indeed  a 
flame  of  fire,"  and  a  colleague,  Jeremiah  Mastin,  of  like  spirit. 
The  former  was  an  orator  of  rare  grace  and  power,  "a  fine 
specimen  of  the  old-fashioned  American  Methodist  preacher. 
.  .  .  His  words  rushed  upon  his  audience  like  an  avalanche, 
and  multitudes  seemed  to  be  carried  before  him  like  the 
yielding  captives  of  a  stormed  castle."  These  two  brethren 
brought  the  Peedee  Circuit  in  a  single  year  up  to  seven 
hundred  and  ninety  white  and  thirty-three  colored  members. 
Mastin  was  afterward  sent  to  Holston,  and  located  there  in 
1790.  Hull  spent  most  of  his  life  in  Georgia  as  preacher  and 
teacher.  He  died  in  181 8.  Richard  Swift,  the  junior  preacher 
on  the  Santee  Circuit,  and  Stephen  Johnson,  on  Broad  River, 
were  also  faithful  workers. 


456  American  Methodism 

On  March  22,  1787,  the  first  Conference  in  South  Carolina 
convened  at  Charleston.  The  new  meetinghouse  on  Cum- 
berland Street,  called  the  "  Blue  Meeting,"  was  ready  for 
occupancy,  and  the  two  bishops  preached  within  its  walls  to 
crowded  and  solemn  congregations.  Richard  Ivey  and 
Reuben  Ellis  were  among  the  preachers  of  this  year- — two  of 
the  most  useful  of  all  the  early  itinerants. 

At  the  second  Conference,  in  March,  1788,  one  of  the 
twelve  stationed  preachers  was  Michael  Burdge,  who  was  sent 
to  Waxhaws  to  preach  to  the  Catawba  Indians.  He  was 
afterward,  in  1808,  one  of  the  Methodist  pioneers  of  Alabama. 
Thomas  Humphries,  who  was  appointed  to  Peedee  Circuit, 
had  been  one  of  the  volunteers — John  Major  was  the  other — 
who  had  carried  Methodism  into  Georgia  two  years  before. 
William  Gassaway,  who  this  year  entered  upon  his  sixteen 
years  of  ministerial  service,  was  one  of  those  characters  for 
which  the  Methodist  itinerancy  has  been  noted  from  the 
beginning.  He  had  been  a  leader  of  the  revels  of  his  local- 
ity, and  the  first  question  raised  by  his  companions  when  he 
went  forward  for  prayers  was :  ' '  What  shall  we  do  for  a 
fiddler,  now  the  Methodists  have  got  Bill  Gassaway?  He  will 
never  play  the  fiddle,  or  drink,  or  fight  any  more."  His 
conviction  of  sin  was  so  distorted  that  he  considered  himself 
unworthy  to  drink  pure  water.  His  ignorance  of  spiritual 
things  was  complete,  and  having  been  awakened  by  a  Metho- 
dist preacher,  he  hardly  dared  seek  counsel  of  a  Presbyterian 
elder,  the  only  intelligent  Christian  he  knew.  The  good 
elder  proved  a  faithful  friend,  and,  following  his  directions, 
Gassaway  was  joyously  converted.  It  is  said  that  the  Bible 
was  almost  the  only  book  he  ever  read.  "  Study  and  preach, 
preach  and  study,"  from  day  to  day,  was  his  plan,  and  such 
was  his  influence    upon  William   Capers   that    he  once  dis- 


The  Hammett  Schism  457 

suadcd  that  future  bishop  from  entering'  on  a  course  of  study 
for  the  ministry.  The  young-  man's  arguments  the  minister 
finally  disposed  of  with,  "Well,  Billy,  if  you  are  called  to 
preach,  and  sinners  are  daily  falling  into  hell,  take  care  lest 
the  blood  of  some  of  them  be  found  on  your  skirts."  Plain 
and  uneducated  as  he  was,  few  excelled  him  as  a  successful 
evangelist.  All  classes  alike  recognized  the  force  of  his 
appeals  and  his  prayers. 

Asbury's  Journals  continue  to  record  the  incidents  of  his 
annual  visits  to  South  Carolina,  traveling  through  the  State, 
holding  the  quarterly  meetings  of  the  circuits  and  presiding 
at  the  Conferences  in  Charleston.  In  1788- 1789  nearly  one 
thousand  members  were  added.  In  1789- 1790  the  increase 
was  six  hundred  and  thirty.  Asbury  wrote  on  his  next  visit, 
in  1 79 1  :  "I  rejoice  to  find  that  this  desert  country  had 
gracious  souls  in  it.  O  how  great  the  change  in  the  flight 
of  six  years !  We  have  now  many  friends  and  some  precious 
souls  converted  to  God.  Glory  be  to  the  Lord  most  high  !  " 
There  were  now  four  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-five 
Methodists  in  South  Carolina,  the  increase  being  no  less  than 
one  thousand  two  hundred  and  seventy-seven. 

The  South  Carolina  Conference  of  1791  gave  rise  to  a 
vexatious  controversy  which  resulted  in  a  schism  which  for 
a  time  seemed  formidable.  Asbury  had  appointed  James 
Parks  to  Charleston,  when  Coke,  belated  by  storms,  arrived 
from  the  West  Indies  with  William  Hammett,  who  had  been 
a  useful  missionary  among  the  blacks.  Hammett,  though 
not  a  member  of  Conference,  claimed  the  circuit  to  which 
another  had  already  been  assigned,  and  by  his  eloquence  and 
social  charm  quickly  won  local  support.  "I  am  somewhat 
distressed,"  wrote  Asbury  at  this  time,  "  at  the  uneasiness  of 
the  people,  who  claim  a  right  to  choose  their  own  preachers — 


458  American  Methodism 

a  tiling  quite  new  among  Methodists.  None  but  Mr.  Ham- 
mett  will  do  them.  We  shall  see  how  it  will  end."  The 
end  did  not  come  soon  nor  easily.  The  pugnacious  Hammett 
followed  the  bishops  to  the  North,  accusing  them  in  print  of 
tyrannous  exercise  of  power  and  of  hostility  to  him  because 
he  was  Wesley's  friend.  They  were  inflexible,  and  Hammett 
accordingly  set  up  an  independent  society  in  Charleston. 
His  building  was  called  "Trinity  Church,"  and  the  several 
societies  formed  in  connection  with  him,  in  Georgetown, 
Savannah,  and  Wilmington,  were  called  "Primitive  Metho- 
dists," in  distinction  from  "  the  Asbury  Methodists,"  as  they 
chose  to  call  the  bishop's  followers.  After  their  leader's 
death,  in  1803,  all  their  property  reverted  to  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  and  the  first  secession  ended  in  absorption 
and  peace. 

Georgia  will  always  be  famous  in  Methodist  history  as  the 
field  of  the  early  missionary  labors  of  John  and  Charles 
Wesley  and  the  scene  of  the  scheme  of  philanthropy  which 
brought  Whitefield  so  often  to  our  shores.  Hither,  too,  in 
February,  1773,  came  Joseph  Pilmoor  on  his  Southern  tour. 
He  found  Savannah  a  town  of  three  thousand  inhabitants 
and  three  churches — Lutheran,  Anglican,  and  Independent — 
in  the  first  of  which  he  was  permitted  to  preach.  He  found 
friends,  and  was  pleasantly  treated  during  his  ten  days'  so- 
journ, one  of  which  was  made  memorable  by  a  visit  to 
Whitefield's  orphanage.  Pilmoor  planted  no  societies,  and 
from  his  visit  until  after  the  War  of  Independence  no  regular 
preachers  went  into  Georgia,  although  among  the  immigrants 
from  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  were  families  which  had 
been  touched  by  the  live  coals  of  Methodism. 

Writing  of  the  Conference  of  1785,  Coke  said:  "Beverly 
Allen  has  all  Georgia  to  range  in."     Allen,  though  a  brilliant 


Plain  Words  to  Town  Folks  459 

man  and  an  attractive  and  powerful  preacher,  was  a  ranger 
by  nature,  and  better  suited  with  a  roving  commission  than 
with  stated  responsibilities.  For  a  time  he  was  admired  by 
the  brethren — though  distrusted  by  the  bishop — and  wrote 
long  letters  to  Wesley,  not  concealing  his  own  share  in  the 
events  which  he  narrated.  His  fall  from  grace,  expulsion 
from  Conference,  in  1792,  and  flight  from  justice  dealt  a 
heavy  blow  to  Georgia  Methodism  in  its  beginnings. 

If  Allen  labored  at  all  on  his  appointment,  in  1785,  it  was 
"probably  in  Wilkes  County,  then  embracing  all  upper 
Georgia."  Seventy  members  were  reported  to  the  Confer- 
ence of  1786,  and  two  A'irginians,  Thomas  Humphries  and 
John  Major,  volunteered  for  that  field.  Humphries  was  a 
handsome  man,  of  keen  wit,  fearless  spirit,  and  considerable 
power,  while  his  colleague  was  a  "  living,  loving  soul,"  whose 
emotional  nature  early  consumed  his  frail  physique.  Major 
died  soon,  and  was  remembered  by  old  Methodists  as  "a 
weeping  prophet."  Humphries  eventually  married  and  lo- 
cated in  South  Carolina,  where  he  often  preached.  He  was 
a  plain  and  rough-spoken  man.  This  characteristic  anecdote 
is  related  of  one  of  his  appearances  in  Georgetown,  S.  C.  : 
A  timid  sister  had  begged  him  to  consider  that  his  hearers 
were  "town  folks,"  and  that  it  "would  not  do  to  be  too 
plain."  For  a  part  of  his  sermon  he  had  seemed  to  observe 
the  warning,  when  suddenly  he  shouted,  ' '  If  you  don't  repent, 
you'll  all  be  damned!"  Then,  as  if  recollecting  himself,  he 
apologized,  "  I  beg  your  pardon;  you  are  town  folks."  This 
was  repeated  at  intervals  throughout  the  sermon,  which 
closed  with  this  emphatic  declaration  :  "  Town  folks  you  may 
be,  but  if  you  don't  repent,  and  become  converted,  God  will 
cast  you  into  hell  just  as  soon  as  he  will  a  piney-woods 
sinner." 


460  American  Methodism 

To  the  faithful  labors  of  Humphries  and  Major  Methodism 
owes  its  rise  in  Georgia.  They  entered  it  when  not  more 
than  five  hundred  of  its  eighty  thousand  inhabitants  were 
Christians,  and  when  there  were  not  ten  Christian  ministers 
in  the  State.  "The  settlements  were  upon  the  creeks  and 
rivers,"  says  Smith,  "and  the  inhabitants  were  thinly  settled 
all  over  the  face  of  the  country.  The  dwellings  were  pole- 
cabins,  and  even  in  the  cities  were  built  largely  of  logs. 
There  were  no  roads — only  pathways  and  Indian  trails. 
There  were  no  houses  of  worship,  and  the  missionaries 
preached  only  in  private  dwellings.  The  work  had  all  to  be 
laid  out,  and  for  the  first  year  it  is  probable  that  the  two 
preachers  visited  together  the  settlements  which  were  thick- 
est, and  organized  societies  where  they  could.  We  conclude 
that  they  compassed  the  country  from  the  Indian  frontier  on 
the  north  to  the  lower  part  of  Burke  County  on  the  south." 
Four  hundred  and  thirty  members  were  brought  into  the 
society. 

Allen  left  his  appointment  in  South  Carolina  in  May,  1787, 
for  a  visit  to  Georgia.  He  mentions  in  a  letter  to  Wesley 
the  good  work  of  the  two  preachers,  and  of  his  own  labors 
he  writes :  ' '  During  my  stay  of  three  weeks  the  power  of 
God  attended  us  in  a  particular  manner.  The  people  had 
waited  with  impatience  to  see  me  there.  Many  of  them 
had  known  me  in  the  North ;  and  they  were  not  disap- 
pointed, for  such  gracious  seasons  will  not  soon  be  for- 
gotten;" and  of  one  solemn  service  in  the  forest:  "Toward 
the  close  of  my  discourse  one  poor  sinner  dropped  to  the 
ground  in  silence,  while  many  others  cried  aloud  for  mercy 
and  several  found  peace  and  pardon  to  their  souls." 

The  next  year  Georgia  became  a  district,  with  the  veteran 
Richard   Ivey  for  presiding  elder.      Major,  with   one  young 


Hope  Hull  Enlists  461 

helper,  took  Burke  Circuit,  which  comprised  the  territory 
south  and  southwest  from  Augusta,  and  Humphries,  with 
another,  took  the  rest  of  the  State.  The  little  baud  gathered 
in  over  six  hundred  members  during  the  year. 

In  April.  17SS,  Asbury  came  to  Georgia  to  hold  the  first 
Conference  of  that  State.  John  Major  went  to  South  Caro- 
lina to  meet  him,  but  was  so  wasted  witli  consumption  that 
he  could  not  attend  the  sessions,  and  died  before  its  close. 
The  bishop  met  the  preachers — ten  in  all,  four  of  these  pro- 
bationers— in  a  house,  probably  David  Merriweather's,  at  the 
forks  of  Broad  River,  now  Elbert  County.  There  were 
hopeful  signs  in  the  outlook.  "Many,"  notes  the  bishop, 
"that  had  no  religion  in  Virginia  have  found  it  after  their 
removal  into  Georgia  and  South  Carolina.  Here  at  least 
the  seed  has  sprung  up  wherever  it  may  have  been  sown." 

This  year  was  the  first  of  Hope  Hull's  long  connection 
with  Georgia  Methodism.  He  was  a  house  carpenter  from 
Baltimore,  was  himself  built  on  a  generous  scale,  physically 
and  mentally,  and  even  now,  though  only  in  his  twenty-fifth 
year,  was  a  preacher  of  uncommon  energy  and  unction. 
After  his  location,  in  1795,  he  established  an  academy  near 
Washington,  and  became  an  influential  citizen  of  the 
State  and  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  university.  He  died 
in  1S1S. 

Richard  Ivey  was  in  charge  of  the  work  in  Georgia  until 
1793.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  small,  active  man.  He  was 
fullv  worn  out  by  the  service,  and  died  two  years  later. 
Excepting  Hull,  the  men  who  had  been  sent  to  his  frontier 
district  were  scarcely  adequate  to  the  demands  of  the  case, 
and  when  the  total  membership  reached  two  thousand,  as  it 
did  in  1790,  it  came  to  a  standstill,  and  for  several  years 
heavily  declined.      In  1 794  the  Georgia  Conference  was  united 


462  American  Methodism 

with  the  South  Carolina  Conference,  and  did  not  regain  its 
separate  existence  for  more  than  a  generation. 

A  beginning  had  been  made  for  Methodism  in  Georgia. 
The  cities,  Savannah  and  Augusta,  were  yet  to  be  occupied, 
and  fresh  bands  of  better  equipped  but  not  more  faithful 
itinerants  were  to  extend  the  circuits  and  swell  the  numbers 
in  society,  until  the  great  revival  at  the  end  of  the  old  cen- 
tury and  the  camp  meetings  which  followed  should  give  to 
Georgia  Methodism  numbers  and  power. 


CHAPTER   XLVI 

On  the  Western  Waters 

The    Gateway    of    the    West.— The    "  Land  of    the    Sky." 
Heroes  of  Kentucky. — The  Cumberland  Pioneers. 


-The 


IN  the  later  years  of  the  Revolutionary  War  the  fertile 
region  west  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia,  watered 
by  the  Cumberland  and  Tennessee  and  other  affluents 
of  the  Ohio,  was  rapidly  filling  up  with  settlers  from  those 
States.  Between  1758,  when  the  North  Carolina  pioneers 
spied  out  the  richness  of  the  "  Land  of  the  Sky"  that  lay 
beyond  the  Blue  Ridge,  down  to  1784,  it  is  said  that  ten 
thousand  settlers  followed  them  into  the  region  between  the 
Cumberland  and  the  Carolinas.  Their  log  cabins  were 
scattered  along  the  rivers,  and  the  settlements  were  without 
State  organization,  without  newspapers,  schools,  or  churches. 
A  new  band  of  pilgrim  fathers  was  landing  on  the  shores 
of  a  new  domain.  The  gateway  of  the  West  was  open.  In 
the  eager  throng  that  pressed  through  it  to  form  the  States 
of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  and  then  to  cross  the  Ohio  and 
carve  a  dozen  imperial  States  from  the  vast  northwest 
territory,  were  to  be  found  men  tired  of  the  restraints  of  the 
old   communities,   and   not   unfrequently  selfish   seekers   for 

gain,  and  sometimes  lawless  adventurers.      Upon  the  Chris- 

463 


464 


American  Methodism 


tian  Churches  of  the  East  fell  the  responsibility  of  seizing 
and  holding  these  nascent  commonwealths  for  Christ. 

'For  this  work  the  Methodist   Episcopal  Church  appears  to 

have  been  de- 
signed by  Provi- 
dence. It  seemed 
conscious  of  a  call. 
Her  preachers- 
were  youthful  and 
energetic,  and 
their  Gospel  was 
hopeful  and  joy- 
ous. They  were 
men  of  simple  life, 
raised  above  the 
rude  conditions  of 
frontier  existence 
by  no  distinction 
of  dress,  speech,  or 
education.  Their 
itinerant  system 
easily  solved  the 
problem  of  their 
support,  so  diffi- 
cult else  in  a  new 
country,  and  at  the 
same  time  enabled 
a  few  evangelists 
to  cover  effectually 
an  entire  State.  Finally  in  Francis  Asbury  the  Methodists 
possessed  a  general  superintendent  endowed  with  every  quali- 
fication for  the  direction  of  such  an  unparalleled  campaign. 


FROM   A   PHOTOGHAPH    BY    T.    M      LINDSfcY. 

IN    THE    "  LAND    OF   THE    SKY." 
Country  near  Asheville,  N.  C,  penetrated  by  Asbury  on  horseback. 


The  Opening  of  East  Tennessee  465 

The  first  Methodist  preacher  appointed  to  work  in  what  is 
now  eastern  Tennessee  was  Jeremiah  Lambert.  He  was  a 
native  of  New  Jersey,  "taken  from  the  common  walks  of 
life,"  but  gifted  with  a  fine  intelligence  and  quick  sympathy. 
Holston  Circuit,  to  which  he  was  sent  in  1783,  "embraced 
all  the  settlements  on  the  Watauga,  Nolachucky,  and  Holston 
Rivers,"  comprising  nearly  a  dozen  counties  now  included 
in  East  Tennessee  and  southwestern  Virginia.  Sixty  mem- 
bers were  already  reported  in  this  field,  either  Methodist 
families  from  Carolina  or  the  harvest  of  faithful  local 
preachers  whose  names  are  written  on  high.  The  year  after 
Lambert's  labor  here  he  was  elected  elder  by  the  Christmas 
Conference  and  sent  to  the  island  of  Antigua,  where  Coke 
was  deeply  interested  in  a  missionary  enterprise  among  the 
colored  people.  He  died  in  1786,  "justly  lamented,"  say 
the  Minutes,  "very  useful,  humble  and  holy,  diligent  in  life 
and  resigned  in  death." 

The  second  missionary  to  the  Holston  settlements  was 
Henry  Willis,  one  of  the  best  men  in  the  itinerancy.  After 
one  year  on  the  circuit  he  was  appointed  presiding  elder,  in 
1785,  of  the  district  in  western  North  Carolina  to  which 
Holston  Was  attached.  Two  young  men,  Richard  Swift 
and  Michael  Gilbert,  were  appointed  to  travel  the  circuit, 
now  grown  beyond  one  man's  ability  to  serve.  The  pre- 
siding elder  for  1786  was  Reuben  Ellis,  one  of  the  North 
Carolina  veterans,  and  the  young  preachers  were  Mark  Whit- 
taker  and  Mark  Moore. 

Four  hundred  and  fifty  members  were  reported  for  Holston 
in  1787,  and  a  loud  call  for  more  missionaries  went  up  to  the 
Conference.  Saintly  John  Tunnell  was  placed  in  command 
of  the  volunteers.  He  had  been  ten  years  a  preacher,  and, 
though  already  a  prey  to  pulmonary   disease,  could   not  be 


466 


American  Methodism 


deterred  by  hardship  from  what  he  conceived  to  be  his  duty. 
Friends  in  the  West  Indies  had  offered  him  a  salary  and  a 
manservant  if  he  would  settle  among  them  as  a  minister, 
but  he  chose  to  use  his  declining'  strength  to  publish  the 
Gospel  in  the  settlements  where  the  need  was  so  intense. 
In  July,  1790,  while  returning  from  the  Conference  in  Ken- 


OM    A    PmOTCG* 


A    FARMHOUSE    IN    THE   "LAND   OF   THE   SKY. 


tucky,  Asbury  heard  that  the  intrepid  missionary  had  finished 
his  course.  He  died  at  Sweet  Springs,  and  was  buried  at 
Dew's  Chapel,  where  the  bishop  "preached  his  funeral"  from 
the  words,  "For  me  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain." 
Beginning  a  few  months  after  his  conversion,  Tunnell  had 
preached  thirteen  years.  "  Few  men,"  says  the  bishop,  "  as 
public  ministers  were  better  known  or  more  beloved.  He  was 
a  simple-hearted,  artless,  childlike  man,  ...  an  improving 
preacher,  a  most  affectionate  friend,  and  a  great  saint."  The 
tones  of  his  lutelike  voice  and  the  benediction  of  his  coun- 
tenance were  long  a  blessed  memory  with  those  among  whom 
he  ministered. 


In  the  "Land  of  the  Sky"  467 

The  call  of  1787  was  for  "young  men  who  counted  not 
their  lives  dear;"  for  the  red  men  were  restless,  the  fords 
were  treacherous,  and  there  was  not  always  much  to  choose 
between  a  bed  under  the  stars  and  the  shelter  of  a  moun- 
taineer's cabin.  Thomas  Ware,  who  was  one  of  the  volun- 
teers, enumerates  some  of  the  features  of  the  Holston  settle- 
ments: "  Many  were  refugees  from  justice.  Some  there  were 
who  had  borrowed  money  or  were  otherwise  in  debt,  and  had 
left  their  creditors  and  securities  to  do  as  best  they  could ; 
some  had  been  guilty  of  scandalous  or  heinous  crimes  and  had 
fled  from  justice;  others  had  left  their  wives  and  were  living 
with  other  women.  Among  these  there  were  a  few  who  had 
made  a  profession  of  religion,  and  two  in  particular  who  had 
been  ministers  of  the  Gospel  and  who  opposed  the  Methodists 
very  violently.  ...  In  many  of  the  settlements  we  found 
some  who  had  heard  the  Methodist  preachers,  and  they 
hailed  us  with  a  hearty  welcome.  Societies  were  formed,  log 
chapels  erected,  and  three  hundred  members  received  this 
year." 

In  the  fall  Ware  was  detailed  to  lay  out  a  new  circuit  on 
the  upper  courses  of  the  Holston  and  French  Broad,  and 
the  hardships  of  that  winter  surpassed  any  experience  of  his 
forty  years  of  service.  Fording  torrents,  sleeping  in  draughty 
cabins,  hungry,  thirsty,  and  saddle-sore,  he  made  his  way 
south  along  the  Holston,  thence  by  following  a  blazed  trail  he 
crossed  the  divide  on  the  edge  of  the  Cherokee  country,  and 
reached  the  waters  of  the  French  Broad.  Here  were  some 
settlers  who  rejoiced  at  the  sound  of  a  preacher's  voice,  and 
here,  too,  were  outlaws  who  vented  their  hatred  of  social 
order  by  driving  out  its  representative. 

The  year  1788  was  made  memorable  among  the  Western 
preachers  by  a  visit  from  their  leader.     In  May,  1788,  As- 


468 


American   Methodism 


bury,  unused  to  mountaineering,  made  the  arduous  journey 
from  North  Carolina  through  the  Holston  country,  and  held 
a  Conference  at  a  place  which  has  been  identified  as  Key- 
woods,  near  Saltville,  in  the  southwestern  angle  of  Virginia. 


KILLIAN  S   HOUSE,    BEAVER  DAM   VALLEY,  NEAR   ASHEVILLE,  N.  C. 
Bishop  Asbury  preached  here  in  1800  and  at  several  times  in  later  years. 

We  have  already  noticed  the  occasion  (in  chapters  35  and  36). 
"The  best  of  all  was  their  labors  were  owned  and  blessed 
of  God,  and  they  were  like  a  band  of  brothers,  having  one 
purpose  and  one  end  in  view — the  glory  of  God  and  the  sal- 
vation of  immortal  souls.  When  the  preachers  met  from 
their  different  and  distant  fields  of  labor  they  had  a  feast  of 
love  and  friendship ;  and  when  they  parted  they  wept  and 
embraced  each  other  as  brothers  beloved." 

Two  new  circuits  appear  in  the  Minutes  of  this  year,  1788  : 


"December  as  Pleasant  as  May"  469 

French  Broad,  for  whose  arduous  requirements  no  better 
man  could  have  been  named  than  Daniel  Asbury  ;  and  New- 
River,  where  Thomas  Ware  and  Jesse  Richardson  found 
themselves  the  only  religious  teachers  on  the  four  weeks' 
round.  "  The  hearts  and  houses  of  the  people  were  open  to 
receive  us,"  wrote  Ware;  and  severe  as  the  winters  were  in 
a  country  where  "galloping"  consumption  carried  off  many 
a  sturdy  young  preacher,  he  could  say,  "  I  passed  them  very 
pleasantly  to  myself,  and  so  it  would  have  been  in  Greenland 
itself,  with  the  sentiments  and  feelings  I  possessed." 

Asbury  continued  to  pour  preachers  into  these  high  valleys 
with  a  lavish  hand.  New  names  appear  every  year.  The 
presiding  elder  in  1788  had  been  Edward  Morris,  in  1789 
John  Tunnell  again,  in  1790  Charles  Hardy,  in  1791  Mark 
Whittaker,  and  in  1792  Barnabas  McHenry.  Among  the 
traveling  preachers  of  these  years  are  Jeremiah  Mastin, 
Joseph  Doddridge,  John  Baldwin,  Jeremiah  Abel,  Daniel 
Shines,  Daniel  Lockett,  Joseph  Pace,  Julius  Conner,  John 
McGee,  John  West,  John  Ball,  John  Sewell,  Salathiel  Weeks, 
James  Ward,  Stephen  Brooks,  William  Burke,  David  Hag- 
gard, Jeremiah  Norman.  Many  of  these  withdrew  from  the 
itinerancy  after  a  few  years,  "through  weakness  of  body  or 
family  concerns,"  to  use  the  phrase  of  the  old  Minutes,  but 
a  few  names,  like  those  of  McHenry  and  Burke,  are  among 
the  brightest  in  the  annals  of  Western  Methodism. 


CHAPTER   XLVII 

The  Entrance  into  Kentucky 

The  Father  of  Kentucky  Methodism. — Haw  and  Ogden.— Poy- 
thress. — Brooks  and  McHenry. — First  Kentucky  Conference. 
— Middle  Tennessee  Penetrated. 


IT  is  supposed  that  the  Holston  preachers  were  not  alone 
at  the  Conference  of  1788,  for  Methodist  itinerants  were 
already  abroad  among  the  vigorous  settlements  of  Ken- 
tucky, and  no  perils  of  red  men  or  wild  beasts  could  have 
deterred  such  men  as  these  from  crossing  the  wilderness 
which  lay  between  them  and  the  assembly  of  their  brethren. 

It  was  in  1786  that  the  first  Methodist  itinerants  formally 
reached  Kentucky.  The  land  of  Daniel  Boone  was  rapidly 
gaining  settlers  from  Virginia  and  other  States,  and  Baptist 
preachers  were  already  at  the  front.  The  Presbyterians  had 
formed  a  few  churches,  and  were  organizing  the  Presbytery 
of  Transylvania. 

The  father  of  Kentucky  Methodism  was  Francis  Clark,  a 

local   preacher,    who   emigrated    from   Virginia   with    other 

Methodists  and  settled  in  Mercer  County  near  Danville  in 

1783  or  1784.     Here  was  formed  a  Methodist  class,  the  first 

in  what  was  then  "  the  far  West."     A  little  later  one  Thomas 

Stevenson    and    his   wife — the    latter   a   convert    of    Robert 

470 


Haw  and  Ogden  471 

Strawbridge,  in  Maryland,  in  1768 — made  their  home  near 
Washington,  in  Mason  County,  and  with  them  the  first 
itinerants  found  a  eordial  welcome. 

At  the  Baltimore  Conference  in  1786  it  was  decided  to 
send  two  preachers  to  form  a  circuit  in  Kentucky,  and  James 
Haw  and  Benjamin  Ogden  were  read  out  for  the  appoint- 
ment. Haw  had  preached  four  years  in  Virginia,  but  it  was 
young  Ogden's  first  year  in  an  itinerant's  saddle,  though  he 
had  seen  service  in  the  Revolution,  and  was  not  the  man  to 
avoid  exposure  or  privation.  At  Kenton's  Station  they  found 
the  Stevensons,  and  in  their  cabin  Ogden  preached  and 
formed  a  society.  Thence  journeying  on  from  stockade  to 
stockade,  at  times  alone,  often  under  armed  escort,  they  made 
the  round  of  the  white  settlements,  proclaiming  the  liberty 
with  which  their  own  souls  had  been  set  free  and  opening 
the  way  for  those  who  should  come  after.  They  met  with 
opposition  from  the  lawless  classes,  who  had  fled  to  these 
wilds  to  escape  the  just  reward  of  their  crimes,  and  their  work 
was  sometimes  embarrassed  by  preachers  of  other  sects.  But 
the  first  fruit  of  their  labors  was  ninety  members  in  society. 

In  1787  James  Haw  was  reappointed  to  "  Kentucky,"  with 
Thomas  Williamson  and  Wilson  Lee ;  and  a  second  circuit, 
called  Cumberland,  embracing  the  settlements  on  that  great 
river  in  southern  Kentucky  and  Middle  Tennessee,  was 
assigned  to  Ogden  alone.  The  enthusiastic  presiding  elder 
and  his  able  assistants  so  extended  the  work  in  Kentucky 
that  the  ensuing  Conference  of  1788  apportioned  its  four 
hundred  and  eighty  members  between  two  circuits,  Lexing- 
ton and  Danville,  and  brought  that  experienced  leader, 
Francis  Poythi-ess,  from  the  East  to  superintend  the  work,  at 
the  same  time  that  Peter  Massie  and  Benjamin  Snelling 
reinforced  Williamson  on  Lexington  Circuit. 


472  American   Methodism 

Francis  Poythress  was  now  in  his  prime.  He  was  of  good 
origin,  and  had  been  reclaimed  from  habits  of  dissipation  by 
Jarratt,  the  good  Virginia  rector.  He  joined  the  Methodist 
itinerancy  before  the  war,  and  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  was 
one  of  its  best  exponents,  the  favorite  choice  of  the  discern- 
ing Asbury  for  work  requiring  judgment  and  administrative 
capacity.  In  1783  he  was  sent  to  the  Youghiogheny,  a  cir- 
cuit in  western  Pennsylvania.  Before  the  Christmas  Confer- 
ence Asbury  had  much  talk  with  him  about  the  plan  of 
Church  organization.  In  1786  he  entered  upon  a  series  of 
important  charges,  as  presiding  elder,  in  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  and  Kentucky,  which  he  managed  so  well  that  in 
1797  Asbury  suggested  him  for  his  colleague  in  the  gen- 
eral superintendency.  Though  a  man  of  unusual  physical 
strength,  he  succumbed  at  last  to  the  strain  upon  his  facul- 
ties, and  his  mind  was  darkened  during  his  closing  years. 
After  1802  his  name  was  taken  from  the  Conference  roll,  and 
in  1 8 1 8  he  died  at  the  home  of  his  sister,  twelve  miles  south 
of  Lexington,  Ky.,  the  State  for  which  he  gave  his  best 
energies. 

Peter  Massie,  the  junior  on  the  Lexington  Circuit  this 
year,  was  one  of  those  "  weeping  prophets"  whose  tears  were 
more  eloquent  than  words.  He  was  the  first  Kentuckian 
convert  who  became  a  preacher.  For  some  time  after  his 
conversion  he  resisted  the  call  to  preach,  and  lost  his  enjoy- 
ment of  religion.  At  this  time  he  escaped  as  by  miracle 
from  an  Indian  affray  in  which  all  his  companions  were  slain. 
In  his  prayer  for  deliverance  he  had  vowed  himself  to  God's 
service,  and  he  now  made  full  consecration.  His  tearful 
appeals,  pleasant  address,  and  sweet  songs  gave  him  great 
success,  but  his  physique  was  too  frail  for  the  demands  upon 
it.     After  three  years  of  faithful  service  he  ceased  at  once  to 


"  I  am   Happy  Enough  to*  Die" 


473 


work  and  live.  As  he  sat  at  a  settler's  table  near  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  in  December,  1791,  he  said,  in  reply  to  a  remark 
upon  his  condition,  "  If  I  am  not  well  enough  to  travel,  I  am 
happy  enough  to  die."  A  few  minutes  later  he  expired — 
the  first  Kentucky  preacher  to  pass  to  his  reward. 

In  the  year  1789  Poythress  had  seven  preachers  under  him 


OLD  STATEHOUSE,  FRANKFORT,  K.Y. 


in  Kentucky,  including  the  two  on  Cumberland  Circuit,  and 
more  than  a  thousand  members  in  society.  Early  in  this 
year  his  colleague,  Haw,  wrote  to  Asbury  in  glowing  lan- 
guage:  "Good  news  from  Zion ;  the  work  of  God  is  o-oino- 
on  rapidly  in  this  new  world  ;  a  glorious  victory  the  Son  of 
God  has  gained,  and  he  is  still  going  on  conquering  and  to 
conquer.  Heaven  rejoices  daily  over  sinners  that  repent. 
.  .  .  Indeed  the  wilderness  and  solitary  places  are  glad, 
and  the  desert  rejoices  and  blossoms  as  the  rose." 


474  American  Methodism 

Stephen  Brooks  and  Barnabas  McHenry  first  figure  in  the 
Kentucky  appointments  of  1789.  After  four  years  Brooks 
located  in  Tennessee.  McHenry's  career  was  more  con- 
spicuous. He  was  a  native  of  North  Carolina,  was  converted 
at  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  was  in  the  itinerant  harness  before 
he  was  twenty.  Two  years  later  he  came  to  Kentucky,  where 
he  became  identified  with  the  history  of  Methodism.  His 
personal  presence  was  prepossessing,  and  his  intellectual 
powers  unusually  vigorous  and  well  disciplined.  He  had 
few  equals  as  an  expository  preacher,  unfolding  his  subject 
with  perfect  clearness  and  irresistible  force.  Bascom  said  of 
him,  "  Even  a  century  in  a  single  community  produces  few 
such  men." 

In  1790  Asbury  came  to  Kentucky  with  an  armed  escort, 
and  held  Conference,  the  first  in  what  was  then  "the  far 
West,"  at  Masterson's  Station,  near  Lexington,  in  a  log 
church.  Lee,  Williamson,  and  McHenry  were  ordained. 
The  bishop  preached,  and  souls  were  converted.  Preachers 
were  stationed  on  four  circuits  in  Kentucky,  Limestone  and 
Madison  being  the  new  ones.  The  new  preachers  were 
Henry  Birchett,  of  Virginia,  who  was  distinguished  for  his 
work  among  the  young;  David  Haggard  and  Joseph  Lillard, 
who  soon  ceased  to  travel ;  and  the  unfortunate  Samuel 
Tucker.  Young  Tucker  was  on  his  way  down  the  Ohio  to 
Limestone  (Maysville)  when  his  boat  was  attacked  by  Indians. 
The  frontier  preacher,  inured  to  such  dangers  from  his  boy- 
hood, joined  in  the  defense,  but  received  a  mortal  wound, 
thousfh  he  continued  to  load  and  fire  as  lony  as  he  could  see 
to  sight  his  rifle.  The  boat  eventually  reached  the  settle- 
ment, and  the  remains  of  the  preacher  were  laid  in  a  name- 
less grave  on  the  spot  where  he  was  to  have  begun  his 
ministry. 


"The  Spirit  of  Matrimony  Prevalent" 


475 


This  year,  1790,  was  marked  also  by  the  establishment  of 
a  Methodist  boarding  school.  Bethel  Academy,  in  Jessamine 
County,  a  Cokesbury  for  the  West.  Its  interests  lay  very 
near  Poythress's  heart,  but  the  means  at  his  command  did 
not  suffice  for  its  support,  and  its  precarious  existence  was 
soon  terminated. 

Salt  River  Circuit  was  added  to  the  number  in  Kentucky 
in  1 79 1 ,  Madison  being  merged  in  Danville  Circuit  at  the 
same  time. 

In  April,  1792,  the  year  of   Kentucky's  admission  to  the 


DRAMK    BV    P     E.    FUNTQFF 


SLICK    FORD,    KV.,    METHODIST    EPISCOPAL    CHURCH. 
A  typical  frontier  Methodist  meetinghouse  in  Kentucky. 

Union,  Asbury  came  thither  to  hold  his  second  Conference. 
"The  spirit  of  matrimony  is  very  prevalent  here,"  he  re- 
marked, upon  learning  how  many  of  his  young  preachers 
wished  to  locate.  "  The  land  is  good,  the  country  new,  and 
indeed  all  possible  facilities  to  the  comfortable  maintenance 
of  a  family  are  offered  to  an  industrious,  prudent  pair." 
Reinforcements  were  necessary,  and  of  the  six  new  names 
on  the  list  those  of  Benjamin  Xorthcutt,  John  Ray,  and  John 


476  American  Methodism 

Page  deserve  more  than  mention.  Northcutt  itinerated  only 
a  few  years,  but  after  his  location  few  preachers  were  more 
useful  than  he  in  forming  societies  and  bringing  sinners  to 
repentance.  Ray  preached  for  thirty  years  in  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina.  His  commanding 
figure,  strong  visage,  crowned  with  a  bushy  mane,  bespoke 
a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  force  of  character.  His  small 
knowledge  of  books  did  not  embarrass  his  utterance,  and  his 
discourse  was  marked  with  humor,  sarcasm,  and  uncom- 
promising firmness  and  boldness  of  speech.  The  latter 
quality  sometimes  brought  him  into  personal  danger,  but  his 
coolness  and  fearlessness  never  failed  to  bring  him  off  with 
a  whole  skin,  and  woe  to  the  rash  man  who  measured  wits 
with  him. 

John  Page's  name  was  on  the  Conference  roll  until  1859, 
except  from  1804  to  1825,  when  he  was  local.  In  addition  to 
the  length  of  his  service  he  is  to  be  remembered  as  a  leading 
factor  in  the  revival  scenes  which,  beginning  in  the  Cumber- 
land region  about  1799,  swept  eastward  to  kindle  the  evan- 
gelistic ardor  of  all  the  Churches,  and  to  repay  them  a 
thousandfold  for  the  lives  and  treasure  which  had  been 
lavished  in  sowing  the  West  with  the  best  of  Gospel  seed. 

Middle  Tennessee  received  its  Methodist  heralds  from 
Kentucky.  In  1787  Benjamin  Ogden  was  sent  to  form  the 
Cumberland  Circuit,  which  comprised  Nashville  and  the 
settlements  on  the  north  side  of  the  Cumberland  River.  It 
lay  partly  in  Kentucky,  but  mainly  in  Tennessee.  The 
settlements  were  thin  and  scattered  and  open  to  Indian 
attacks.  There  was  but  one  church — Presbyterian — in  all 
that  valley,  and  the  sixty-three  names  which  Ogden  enrolled 
doubtless  cost  a  vast  expenditure  of  patience  and  toil.  James 
Haw  and  Peter  Massie,  "  the  weeping  prophet,"  entered  into 


On  the  Cumberland 


477 


their  predecessor's  labors,  and  in  1  789  reported  a  membership 
of  over  four  hundred.  Among  the  earl)-  converts  were  many 
who  became  leading  citizens,  stanch  Methodists,  and  whose 
sons  have  adorned  the  ministry  of  the  Church.  Haw  soon 
married  and  left  the  itinerancy,  afterward  allying  himself  to 


THE  OLD  MACDOXALD  HOUSE,  NEAR  ELACK.SBURG,  V A. 
One  of  Bishop  Asbury's  favorite  renting  places  on  his  way  to  Holston  and  Kentucky, 


the  O'Kelly  faction,  and  at  last  dying  in  the   Presbyterian 
communion. 

Thomas  Williamson  and  Joseph  Hartly  were  the  Cumber- 
land preachers  in  1789.  In  1790  James  Haw,  Wilson  Lee, 
and  Peter  Massie  served  the  circuit,  the  last  named  falling  at 
his  post.  Wilson  Lee  joined  Conference  in  1784,  and  for 
ten  years  traveled  frontier  circuits,  returning  to  the  seaboard 
in  1793.  He  is  one  more  of  those  ardent  spirits  who  poured 
out  their  physical  resources  unsparingly  for  the  cause. 
Broken  down  before  his  prime,  he  was  seized  with  hemor- 
rhage of  the  lungs  in  April,   1804,  while  praying  with  a  sick 


478  American  Methodism 

person,  and  six  months  later  he  died,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
three. 

James  O'Cull  was  another  useful  and  greatly  beloved 
worker  on  this  circuit  who  too  soon  joined  the  ranks  of  the 
worn-out  preachers.  He  had  been  brought  up  a  Roman 
Catholic,  and  the  freedom  of  the  Methodist  faith  filled  his 
soul  with  unspeakable  joy. 

When  the  first  Methodist  General  Conference  met,  in  1792, 
the  Church  numbered  nearly  six  thousand  members  west  of 
the  mountains,  who  were  under  the  pastoral  care  of  thirty- 
five  circuit  preachers.  The  gateway  of  the  West  was  now 
open,  and  the  Methodist  system  had  demonstrated  its  fitness 
for  missionary  work.  The  next  great  advance  would  natu- 
rally take  the  circuit  riders  north  of  the  Ohio. 


